March of the Eggmans
by The Pen Vs The Sword
Summary: After failing to destroy Sonic and the others, Eggman retreats to plot his next move. However, when portals began to open and an old adversary challenges Eggman for control, its up to Sonic and the others to stop them both. Sequel to "Sonic...the Thief?"
1. Chapter 1: Well This Seems New

**A/N:** So you people have been waiting a long time for-

Pen: About a week is a long time?

For them it is. Now, this is the sequel to "Sonic the...Thief?" Its the "March of the Eggmans!" Sword?

Pen: She's off getting some candy.

Well then would you mind?

Pen: Yes, but you'll make me do it regardless. The author only owns Gauge. All other characters are owned by Sega.

And now, the first chapter!

**Chapter 1- Well This Seems New**

"Curse that hedgehog!" Eggman roared from inside his base. He smashed a console in front of him, causing it to spark and shut down.

Eggman grumbled as he leaned back in his chair. "Just when I was about to destroy Sonic, that other accursed hedgehog has to save them." He roared again, knocking aside a smaller droid on a nearby computer. Eggman gripped the arms of his seat and seethed in quiet rage as he watched his robots operating the equipment in the base.

"Doctor!" a droid called as it came up to him.

"What is it?" Eggman growled. He turned around in his seat to face the robot. "It had better be good or you'll go in the trash compactor."

"We are picking up massive energy signatures from different areas of the globe."

Eggman leaned forward. "Is it the chaos emeralds?"

"Negative. The signatures are as strong as the chaos emeralds, but the pattern is different."

Eggman leaned back, stroking his chin. "If it's not the chaos emeralds, then..."he trailed off and pondered for a few moments. "Prepare my ship. Set its course to the nearest signature!"

The droid saluted followed by a "Yes Doctor!" and ran off, leaving Eggman alone with his thoughts.

"Maybe things are beginning to turn around," he chortled to himself.

* * *

Darkness. That's all that he saw.

He felt light. Lighter than ever before. There was no pain, just dull throbs that must have been endorphins or some other chemical blocking all the pain.

There was also a tingling sensation, as if he was constantly being zapped by someone who had shuffled across carpet and then touched him. But instead of shocking the nerves, it seemed wonderful to him. Almost peaceful and relaxing, as if it were a part of his body.

Off in the distance, there was a soft and steady beeping. He counted it, trying to make out its pattern, but would lose it at around forty.

_How long have I been like this?_ was his first question. He knew that sleep had taken him over at some point, but for how long. He debated for the longest time of whether or not to open his eyes. Despite the long sleep, his body fought to keep the eyes shut. In the end, he convinced it to let them open.

Bright light filled his entire vision. He groaned as he blinked rapidly, trying to get used to it. He tried to raise his hand to shield his eyes, but he found it was heavy and laden with wires and other medical equipment.

That's when he heard the soft beeping. Turning his head with some difficulty, his eyes rested on an EKG machine, monitoring his steady heartrate. So that's what the beeping had been.

"Gauge?" a voice asked tentatively.

He turned in the direction of the voice to see an orange, two-tailed fox watching him carefully. He smiled at the fox. "Hey Tails." He moaned and laid back on his pillow. "Is everyone okay?"

Gauge couldn't see Tails nod. "Yeah, everyone's safe."

"Good," Gauge breathed heavily. "Good." He grunted as he tried to sit up, causing Tails to rush over to him.

"You probably shouldn't do that. The doctor said you were in bad shape."

Gauge nodded. "Yeah. I've even got this tingling feeling throughout my body. Maybe its because of that." He laid back down. "How long was I out?"

"A while," Tails replied, pulling a chair out and sitting next at Gauge's bedside. "Close to three weeks."

Gauge eyes widened in surprise. "Three weeks?" he choked. "Man, I thought it was just a couple of days."

Tails shook his head then immediately stood up. "Oh! I should tell everyone else you're awake!" He dashed out of the room. "Everyone will want to see you!"

Gauge shook his head and focused on what Tails had said. _Three weeks._ He wondered what had happened while he had been asleep. And why was that tingling sensation getting stronger than before?

* * *

"Damn, there's nothing here," a soldier in G.U.N. armor muttered. He looked over to his companion clad in a similar outfit. "Find anything?"

His companion shook his head. "Not a thing. Eggman's bomb pretty much destroyed everything on this island. We've been searching for nearly three weeks. There's nothing here." He gave a glance around. "Well let's head back to HQ."

The other nodded. They packed up what equipment they had and proceeded to their helicopter parked on the edge of the island.

"Waste of our damn time," the first one remarked as he tossed his equipment in haphardzly and climbed into the passenger's seat. "Eggman is long gone. And whatever those nerds in the labs are saying about 'powerful reading that could be chaos emeralds', I still think they're full of shit. We haven't found anything."

"I hear ya," his friend replied as he seated himself in the pilot's seat and started up the engines. "Hey after we report in, let's swing by the diner and get a burger."

After the two of them had left, the ground in the area they had been surveying began to shake slightly. Small rocks tumbled about while what little plant life swayed around.

A white portal opened up as if an invisible hand pulled an unseen zipper in mid-air and caused it to open. Two figures fell out of it.

The first one to pick themself up was a lilac colored cat, wearing a purple dress. She had an air of authority about her, which seemed to be emphasized by the jewel in the middle of her head. She dusted herself off and turned to her companion and nudged him with her foot. "Wake up Silver."

The one called Silver had fur that matched his name. He spines stood up widely as they made a sort of arc across his head. He shook himself. "Ugh. What was that Blaze?"

Blaze sighed. "I don't know." She let her eyes wander around, taking in their new surroundings. "But we aren't home anymore."

Silver stood up and looked around as well. He picked up a nearby pebble with his telekinesis and studied it for a second before throwing it to the side. He turned to Blaze. "Well this seems new."

**A/N:** And that's the end of chapter 1. The next chapter may not be up for a while as I'm working on a collab and another one-shot, but I will try and get it up as soon as possible.

Sword: So please read!

Pen:...Review. You forgot the 'and review' part.

Sword: Huh?

Pen: Nevermind.


	2. Chapter 2: A New Look

**A/N: **Okay, I know the beginning was a bit short, but I had to get the story off the ground.

Pen: And out of your thoughts.

Sword: Its a lot roomier in there now. Maybe we can add some stuff in there.

Well, do that on your own time. Right now, we have a story to write.

Sword: Oh yeah! The author owns none of the characters except Gauge. The rest belong to Sega.

Pen: Wake me when this stupidity is through.

Sword: But it'll never be through!

Pen: Then don't wake me at all!

Okay, calm down. Let's do this.

**Chapter 2- A New Look**

Sonic and Amy were walking silently down the sidewalk, each lost in their own thoughts. Amy was suppressing her giddiness as best as she could. Sonic and her had been hanging around each other a lot more recently and today, he had asked to see her specifically. This left Amy to wonder what Sonic was up to.

Sonic himself was glad to be around Amy, but his thoughts were much more worrisome than his pink companion. Mainly lines of _That wouldn't work_ and _Nope. Scratch that_ filled his head as he studied Amy. Eventually they stopped near a corner on the sidewalk.

"So Sonic," Amy began slyly, "why did you want to see me?"

Sonic halted and turned to Amy. He started to lose himself in her sparkling eyes before he realized that she had asked him a question. "Sorry Ames. Whaddya say?"

"I said 'why did you want to see me'?" Amy repeated.

"Oh, well," Sonic paused, still trying to come up with a way to phrase what he wanted to tell her. He gave up and decided to just wing it like everything else.

"I wanted to tell you," he paused.

"Yes?" Amy prodded.

"I think I-"

"Sonic! Amy!" They both turned to see Tails running down the sidewalk to them. Sonic wasn't sure whether to thank Tails for giving him more time to prepare or to curse him since Sonic's courage to tell Amy had waned away instantly.

"What is it Tails?" Amy asked.

"Its Gauge! He's awake!" Tails told them excitedly. He beckoned them to follow him as he ran back in the opposite direction. "C'mon! Everyone else is already there!"

Amy started to follow, but turned back to Sonic. "Hey Sonic? What were you going to say?"

Sonic felt his face heat up a little. He shook his head as he responded, "Nothin'. It can wait." And with that, he picked her up as if she were a bride and dashed to the hospital, passing Tails along the way.

* * *

Eggman's beady eyes were focused on the built-in radar of his eggpod as he flew around the Mystic Ruins. Every once in a while, he would take his eyes off of it and give a quick once-over of the area before flying off, following the blinking radar.

"It should be nearby," he muttered to himself. As he passed a group of rocks, the radar stopped blinking and made a steady beeping sound. Eggman stopped his pod. "Found it!" he exclaimed with glee. He looked around the area. "Now, where could it be hiding?"

He enhanced the radar to get an exact location. It pointed him in the direction of the rocks that he had nearly passed by without so much as a second thought. Eggman pushed a button on his console and a mechanical arm deployed underneath him. Eggman used it to toss aside the rocks, searching for his treasure.

When he had thrown them out of the way, there was nothing. "Arrrgggh! Blasted scanner!" Eggman brought an angry fist down on the console.

A glint where the rocks had been caught his eye. "Hm, what is that?" He used the arm to pick it up and bring it to him. It was a red jewel that shone brilliantly in the setting sun. It was rectangular in shape and somewhat thin.

"No," Eggman whispered. "It couldn't be. This means..."

* * *

"Find anything?" Blaze asked Silver as he lowered himself. He had flown into the air, searching for any sign of life around them.

Silver shook his head. "Nothing. This place looks like it was destroyed a while ago." Blaze sighed. "But I think I did see a city in the distance."

"Which way?"

Silver pointed in its direction. "It's not too far away."

"Then we'll go there," Blaze stated, as she begin to float up as well with the help of Silver's telekinesis. She still hated the idea of being so high up, but it was the quickest means of transportation. "Where there is a city, there will be people. And they can tell us where we are."

Silver nodded as he joined her in the air and they both flew off.

* * *

"Heh, looks like you pulled through alright," Knuckles told Gauge. Cream and him had been the first ones Tails had informed about Gauge waking up.

"Thanks," Gauge replied. "Wait...who's watching the Master Emerald?"

"I called in a favor with Vector," Knuckles answered.

"Chao, chao," Cheese blurted out as he flew from behind Cream.

"I don't know Cheese," Cream told him.

"What is it?" Gauge inquired, cocking an eyebrow.

"Well," Cream began," Cheese was curious why you look different."

"Huh?" Gauge looked bewildered. "What do you mean?"

Before, Cream could answer, Sonic and Amy burst through the door. "Hey Gauge!" Sonic greeted, while Amy beamed and hugged him.

"Its good to see you awake," she smiled.

"Thanks guys."

Sonic's face took on the same look of confusion that Gauge had just had. "But what's with the new look?"

Gauge was reminded of what Cream said earlier. "What are you talking about?"

"Here," Knuckles had found a mirror in a nearby table's drawer and handed it to Gauge. Gauge held it up to find that yellow streaks covered his once all grey fur. Even his spine were different and took on the shape of lightning bolts. Other than that, he seemed to be exactly the same.

Gauge shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe it was the bomb?"

"Could be," Tails piped up as he entered the room. "I could run some tests on you tomorrow. The doctors decided to let you out early. They said that you had healed surprisingly fast."

"Alright," Gauge nodded. He held up the mirror once again, studying his new features and touching some of the yellow. He kept wondering just what had happened. And why that tingling sensation from before was getting stronger.

**A/N:** Well that's it for that chapter.

Pen: The readers can probably see what you're trying to do from a mile away.

Sword: *runs off*

Pen: I shouldn't have said anything. *gets a call on his cell phone* Hello?

Sword: I can't see anything and I'm a mile away!

Well, don't ruin it for the readers who can't see it Pen.

Pen: Get back here you half-wit!

So please be sure to tune in for the third chapter coming soon.


	3. Chapter 3: An Electrifying Discovery

**A/N:** Guys? Where are you?

Sword: C'mon...Say it...

Pen:...

What are you doing?

Sword: Trying to get Pen to say something.

Well would you do the disclaimer?

Sword: Yep yep! The author only owns Gauge! The other characters are owned by Sega. Pen! Say it!

Pen: No.

Sword: Please? I'll make out with you if you do.

Well, we'll leave them for a while and find out how everyone is doing.

**Chapter 3- An Electrifying Discovery**

"You sure this thing is safe?" Gauge asked nervously. Tails and him were in the basement of the fox's workshop, where Tails had hooked several wires onto Gauge in a metal blue chair.

Tails looked up from his computer nearby. "Of course its safe. I'm just scanning you. Its not like I'm testing you on that," he gestured over to a treadmill that had been destroyed.

Gauge gulped. "What happened with that?"

"Oh I was testing Sonic's speed. But it couldn't handle it and...Well, let's just say Sonic woke up later with a bad headache." Tails grinned sheepishly as he turned back to his computer.

"Yeah, that really makes me feel better," Gauge muttered. "By the way, you never told me how you found me."

"Oh well, it was Knuckles who found you," Tails replied. "You were underneath some rubble. We thought you were dead." He flipped some switches on a nearby console.

"Did I look like this?" Gauge indicated his stripes.

Tails nodded. "Yeah. We didn't know what had happened. And the hospital couldn't figure it out either." He typed a command on his computer. "Okay, hold very still."

Gauge heard the computer hum as the fox busily typed away on it, giving a few "Huh"s with a "That's strange" thrown in every once in a while. After several minutes, Gauge looked over. "Well? What's it say?"

Tails looked up from his screen and gave a confused sigh. "Well according to this, you're body seems normal."

"But?"

"But all your cells are...not," he trailed off.

Gauge sighed in frustration at the cryptic message. "How so?"

"Well, if I'm reading this right, your proton and electron count in each cell are all different and completely out of control. Its as if they're embedded wth pure electricity. Not only that, but whatever output your cells are giving off, your nerves are conducting it throughout your body."

Gauge stood up and pulled the computer screen in his direction. "What?" he cried. In the next instant, sparks fizzled from the computer and Gauge felt his nerves tingle more. Almost as if ignited by a fire.

Tails stared at his now blank screen, glancing back at Gauge every few seconds. "What was that?" Gauge asked in a barely audible whisper.

Tails shook his head. "I don't know...but whatever it was, it ruined my computer," he moaned.

* * *

Blaze sighed and rubbed her temple in annoyance. "Why is there nobody here that has heard of our kingdom?" she wondered.

Silver shrugged. "Maybe we're further from home than we thought."

"Well...hm?" Blaze cocked an eyebrow in curiousity, causing Silver to follow her gaze to a black hedgehog wit red striped quills nearby, stooping down in the middle of the sidewalk.

Silver turned to Blaze. "Do you know him?"

Blaze shook her head. "I don't think so and yet he reminds me of someone." She began to walk over to the hedgehog as Silver followed in tow.

* * *

Shadow growled as he found nothing of interest. G.U.N. had assigned Rouge and him to examine areas where sudden energy spikes had appeared, but so far neither had had much luck.

"Ridiculous," Shadow muttered. "Eggman probably has something to do with it anyway. And we should be looking for him!"

"You there!" a voice behind him called. Shadow spun around to find himself face to face with a silver hedgehog and a lilac cat. "Could you help us?" the cat questioned.

"I'm busy," Shadow answered as he turned his back on them.

"Hey! Don't speak to the princess like that!"

Shadow glanced back to see the silver hedgehog glow with a green aura and standing in a fighting stance. "Princess?" he asked. "Of what?"

"Princess Blaze," the lilac cat answered.

Blaze. Her name rung a bell in Shadow's distant memory of when Tails had mentioned her in an off-handed comment one day. He had proceeded to then tell Shadow about their adventure with her, but Shadow had barely paid any attention, as he had been focusing on more important endeavors.

But, he did recall the young fox saying she was from another dimension. As Shadow thought about it, the idea that maybe these two strangers crossing dimensions would cause the energy spikes seemed to make sense.

"Well Princess," Shadow replied in an almost condecsending manner, "I need you to come to G.U.N.'s headquarters to answer some questions." He took a step toward Blaze, but felt a force hold him back.

"No you won't. Blaze isn't going anywhere. We need to get back to her kingdom," the silver hedgehog told him, as he glowed brighter and had his hand aimed at Shadow.

Shadow frowned and disappeared with great speed before coming up behind the bewildered hedgehog and kicking him. "Don't get in my way."

However, the silver hedgehog spun around and once again took a fighting stance. "Not a chance." Blaze came up to the silver hedgehog and ignited her hands with fireballs.

"Ready Silver?" she asked.

Silver nodded. "Yeah."

**A/N: **Ok, so sorry that took so long and didn't have Sonic or Amy in it, but I've just gotten a new job and my freaking t key won't work. So every t you see has had to be copy and pasted. Every. Single. Freaking. One.

Sword: C'mon Pen!

Pen: Fine!...lol

Sword: Yay! Now say-

Pen: No!

_**What**_ _**is happening to Gauge? Will he fix the computer he broke? Will Silver and Blaze get back home?**_

Oh hell. Not you again. How did-

_**Will Shadow win? Will the author get his keyboard fixed? What internet slang will Sword try and get Pen to say next?**_

I'll try get the next chapter up soon. Here's to hoping!

Sword: C'mon!

Pen: No!


	4. Chapter 4: So Close

**A/N: **Yes, I know you all probably want to kill us-

Sword: Agh! Don't!

But we have been busy. So our stories won't be as frequent. Anyway, my t key is still broken, but I'll try and make up for it. Sword?

Sword: Huh? Oh right. The author owns none of the characters in this story...Except Gauge. All others are owned by Sega.

And now, chapter 4!

**Chapter 4- So Close**

"Maybe if I...Nope," Gauge sighed, as he tried unsuccessfully to bring the computer back to life by sending electricity through it.

"Forget about it Gauge," Tails told him. "I have others."

Gauge stopped zapping the computer and looked up. "What did I do anyway?"

"Well, I believe you might have simply drained it of all its power. I'm not sure how, but it could be your cells live off the electricity."

"Well, I do feel slightly more energetic," Gauge admitted.

Tails nodded. "Just as I thought." His rubbed his chin as if in thought. "Could you try it on that?"

Gauge gazed up to where he pointed to see a lightbulb. "Maybe, but I'm not sure how I even did it."

"Just try."

Gauge grabbed a nearby chair and stood up on it, reaching for the lightbulb. However, he was a few inches away, so all he could do was try and will the power from the lightbulb.

Gauge opened his eyes to see the room was darker and the lightbulb no longer lit, yet his hand had an odd yellow glow, with little bolts of electricity crackling around it.

Tails walked closer, marveling at the sight, with a small grin slowly creeping across his face. "Let's test it some more."

Shadow dodged to his left as Silver threw a chair at him, only to be knocked back with a fireball from Blaze.

* * *

"Hmph," Blaze nodded as Shadow fell. But he quickly got right back up and punched Silver.

"Its useless to fight," Shadow told Blaze, as he turned his attention to her. "I am unbeatable." He swung at Blaze, who flew up into the air. "And you're starting to piss me off!"

Blaze simply aimed another fireball, but before she could release it, Shadow homing attacked her, sending her crashing for the ground. Or she would have if Silver hadn't rushed underneath her and caught her.

"Blaze? You ok?" Silver's tone was in a slight panic.

"Yes, I'm fine," Blaze mumbled as she climbed out of Silver's arms and stood a little wobbly on her own.

Shadow pulled out a small communicator given to all G.U.N. agents. "Rouge. I've found who's behind the portals." He put it away and ran for Silver, delivering a knee to his gut.

Blaze immediately gained a newfound strength from seeing this, and socked Shadow right in his nose. Shadow stumbled back and felt his face to find blood. His expression became dark as he once again rushed both of them, kicking Silver backwards. Then he grabbed Blaze and threw her, causing her to crash into Silver and sending them both colliding into a nearby car.

Shadow smirked as he walked over to them, ready to bring both of them back to G.U.N. However, he was struck by a hovering piece of sidewalk from nearby. He looked at Silver, who was now was hovering a door from the car in the air.

Silver pushed the door forward, whacking Shadow across his face, before lifting his hand and bringing the door up. Silver gave a grin as he brought his hand back down, and thus the door on Shadow's head.

* * *

Rouge studied her own communicator. After hearing Shadow's message, she had used her communicator's tracking featue to locate his. "Looks like he's in the city," she muttered. She tucked it away and jumped off the building she was on, opening her wings and soaring into the sky.

* * *

Gauge reached his hands up as if trying to grab the lampost above his head. Tails stood a few feet away on the sidewalk. He had taken Gauge around the city to see what other things were possible with Gauge's new power. So far, he had been able to get energy from anything electrical.

Gauge closed his eyes and concentrated. Tails watched as a stream of electricity connected Gauge with the lamp. After several seconds, the stream disappeared and Gauge opened his eyes.

"Amazing," Tails commented as he walked over. "How do you feel?"

"Fine, but kind of odd. Like a full feeling. Its hard to describe."

"Maybe you have too much electricity in you?" the fox pondered. "That would make sense. You would probably have to expel it somehow."

Gauge nodded. "Ok. Let me try." He backed away from Tails and aimed his hand to the sky. "So nobody gets hurt," he explained before he focused the energy flowing through him to his hand. It began to glow as a ball of electricity formed.

Tails watched in awe as the ball grew to about the size of a soccer ball before Gauge released it into the air. Gauge grinned as he watched it disappear into the pale blue. "Ah, much better."

* * *

At that very moment, high above the two, Rouge was gliding on the wind, keeping one eye on the tracker. "Okay, I should be getting cl-AGH!" She leaned back as a yellow orb flew up past her and disappeared into the sky.

Rouge glared below and, tucking the tracker away, sped toward the ground in a fury. As she came closer to the city, she saw Gauge and Tails below on the sidewalk.

She landed and opened her mouth to unleash her rage, but quickly lost her voice as she saw Gauge shoot bolts of electricity from his hands. "Cool," she heard Gauge comment.

Tails was the one to notice her and waved. "Hey Rouge!" he greeted her in his usual cheery tone.

Rouge waved back him, dumbfounded. She turned to Gauge as she finally found her voice. "How...How did you...?"

Gauge glanced at the fox and shrugged. "Far as we can tell, results of the bomb." He looked back at Rouge. "So what are you up to?"

Rouge shook her head as Shadow's message came back to her. "Helping Shadow." She was struck by an idea. "Maybe you guys could help. C'mon, I'll explain on the way."

* * *

Sonic and Amy, unknown to everyone else, had decided to go for another walk. Sonic had an idea more or less of how he could express his feelings to her. So, as Amy was window shopping, Sonic was going over in his head how the conversation would go.

"Oooo Sonic! Wouldn't this look cute?" Amy cooed as she oogled a dress in a window.

Sonic nodded. "Yeah Ames." He took a deep breath. "Hey, could I talk ta ya?"

Amy twirled around and smiled, causing Sonic's knees to feel a bit weaker. "Sure Sonic." She stood at his side.

Sonic grinned, trying to act like his usual cocky self, but his grin was more nervous instead. "Well we've known each other for a few years. And all that time ya have never stopped chasing me."

Amy nodded. "Of course, my Sonic."

He continued. "Well I've been thinking lately."

"Yeeeeees?" Amy leaned closer.

Sonic could feel sweat oozing out of his pores and down his face. "And I t-" but a nearby explosion shook them both.

"What was that?" Amy gasped. She ran in the direction of where it had come from.

"Wait! Amy!" Sonic cried. He hung his head,sighed and took off after her. "So close. Somebody had better be in trouble." Sonic ran faster to catch up.

**A/N:** Oh wow. That took longer than I thought.

**Sword:** So please review. Its hard working with no t key and staying up late. Right Pen?

**Pen: ***bangs computer* I despise this damned machine! *brings out bat and smashes it*

**Sword:** Gah! Now how will we write?

**Pen:** Who cares?

**Sword:** You jerk! En garde!


	5. Chapter 5: Disagreement

**A/N:** Because certain people, and I'm sure you can guess who, have pointed out some flaws, I've decided to try something new. You will not see Pen or Sword in this chapter as I've sent them on vacation. I'll simply say I only own Gauge and the other characters are owned by Sega.

**Chapter 5- Disagreement**

Eggman strode as quickly as his large girth would carry him through the corridors of his airship. Knocking aside any drones unfortunate enough to get in his way, he turned several corners. All the while one hand kept twirling his large mustache and running over his non-existant hair while his other hand was gripped tight in a fist, holding something. Just poking out of it was the red jewel that Eggman had discovered.

Finally, he slowed his walk as he entered a room with a large machine in the center. Halfway up the machine, there was a gap with a small pedestal, which Eggman placed the gem on ever so carefully despite his hands shaking in anticipation.

He walked over to a computer and tapped a few keys before the gap in the machine was encased in glass. Beams of light moved around inside the glass, going over the gem as an electronic voice repeated over and over, "Analyzing."

Eggman's mind buzzed with questions. _What does this mean? Are the portals involved? What else has come? _But his biggest question was _Is it real?_ He paced back and forth for several minutes waiting and cursing himself for not upgrading the machine to analyze faster.

Eventually, the glass cases lifted with the voice saying, "Analysis complete."

"Computer, show analysis. And tell me what it is," Eggman ordered. A see-through blue screen showed up in front of the machine, providing all information it had obtained. At the top flashed the words sol emerald.

"Doctor, it is one of the seven sol emeralds." Eggman's eyes stared, unblinking as he kept reading those words. "Sol emeralds are from another dimension," the voice went on, "believed to-"

"Enough! Close screen!" Eggman interrupted as he picked up the red emerald. Both the screen and the voice shut down, leaving Eggman to gaze at his treasure. He exited the room, walking slowly to the ship's bridge.

"Are you the cause of these portals?" He seemed to ask the emerald more instead of just pondering. "Or could it have been the bomb that triggered it since it was tampered with?" He tossed the emerald up and down like a ball as he let his eyes and mind wander. "Did the other sol emeralds come through as well? Have other things come through?"

Eggman stepped onto the bridge, where he received his answer. "Doctor, incoming message!" a robot told him. Eggman waved in acceptance as he sat down and the robot entered some commands on a terminal.

An evil and sinister voice was heard throughout the bridge as a screen came up in front of Eggman, showing what looked like Eggman's face, only with a white mustache and a terrifying grin. "Hello, my counterpart."

* * *

"Ames, wait up!" Sonic called as he followed the pink hedgehog. Both of them turned the corner and simultaneously gasped. All around was a scene of destruction with pieces of asphalt and pavement torn and tossed around, damaged cars, broken shop windows, and street lamps knocked over. Small fires helped light up the scene in the fading sunlight.

In the center of it all were three figures. One was Shadow, who knelt on one knee gasping. Amy quickly ran over as Sonic noticed three more figures arrive. One was Rouge, who quickly raced over in a panic to the black hedgehog. Sonic would have grinned at her concern for Shadow if the situation wasn't so serious.

Tails and Gauge, who had arrived with Rouge, stood in a defensive stance between Shadow and the other two figures. One was a silver hedgehog who held one hand to his head as if it was throbbing. He offered a hand to the other, who seemed like a familiar purple cat to Sonic.

Sonic rushed over to the cat, but the silver hedgehog held up his hand, halting him with some invisible force. "Stay away from her," he commanded.

"Blaze?" Sonic asked, ignoring the warning. The cat looked up in surprise as if shocked someone would know her name. She turned and let out a sigh of relief as she met Sonic's eyes.

"Who's that?" Amy questioned from behind Sonic. He thought he could sense a tone of jealousy.

"It's Blaze," Tails answered. "The princess from the other dimension Sonic and me visited." Amy looked at Sonic for confirmation and he nodded.

"So what are you doing here?" Sonic asked Blaze.

Blaze shook her head. "Silver," she indicated the silver hedgehog who still stood his ground between her and them, "and I just came here, but we're not sure how. We were looking for a way back when he attacked us." She pointed an accusing finger at Shadow.

Shadow growled and stood up, pushing Amy and Rouge aside as he stepped threatingly towards Silver and Blaze. Silver saw this and reacted similary. Before they could do anything, Gauge stepped between them and surrounded both with electricity. "Ok, calm down guys."

Everyone save for Rouge, who was busy talking on her communicator gawked. "Uh...that's new," Sonic commented.

Shadow touched the electricity and received a shock while Silver tried using his powers to break through. He nearly did before Tails grabbed everyone's attention by standing beside Gauge. "Look, maybe we should sit down, talk, and find out what's going on," he suggested.

"Good idea bro," Sonic agreed.

Rouge shut off her communicator. "How about we go to G.U.N.? They might have some information for us. At least, according to what they just told me."

Blaze gave Sonic a questioning look. Sonic nodded and smiled. "Ok," Blaze replied. "We'll go."

Shadow and Silver both turned to her in disbelief. "What?" both shouted in unison as they ran into the electricity and were knocked back to the ground.

"Oops," Gauge chucked sheepishly as he stopped. "Guess that didn't help."

"Especially with how hurt they are," Rouge pointed out. "Oh well. We'll just carry them."

* * *

"So it is real?" Eggman marveled at the Sol Emerald.

"Yes," Nega replied, stroking his mustache. "Objects are appearing from my world into yours. As far as I can tell, it has something to do with a large amount of energy. I'm guessing the chaos emeralds are the culprits?"

Eggman nodded. "Yes. Sonic and his accursed friends are responsible."

"I see. Well I should be arriving at your ship within the hour. Have that gem," he pointed at the red Sol Emerald, "and any other Sol or Chaos Emeralds ready for me."

"Why?" Eggman cocked an eyebrow as his graps on the emerald tightened.

"I plan to use them for a device to destroy that damned princess and your blue menace. And I don't wish to have you in the way, messing up like last time."

"Me?" Eggman thundered. He stood up and slammed his fist on a console. "You were the flaw in my brilliant plan." He shook a fist at a surprised Nega. "I'll destroy Sonic myself! And you'll have to kill me to get the emeralds!"

Nega grinned. "With pleasure." And with that he vanished, leaving Eggman to panic slightly. He gave the Sol Emerald on last look before tucking it in his pocket and ordering his drones to scan for more emeralds. Within several minutes, one had been found.

"Go to it. Full speed," Eggman commanded, taking his seat again as the ship sped off toward the Mystic Ruins.

**A/N: **So there you are. Please read and review and tell me which style of an's you like better. Also, if anyone can guess where I got the idea for Gauge's name, (either incident, book, or movie), and sends me a pm or leaves it in a review, I'll put you or your oc in my next one-shot. Bye bye for now.


	6. Chapter 6: What Do They Want?

**A/N:** And here we are again. And guess who's back?

**Sword:** Hi!

Like your vacation?

**Sword:** Yeah! Italy was great!

**Pen:** England wasn't bad.

You guys went to separate places?

**Pen:** Of course! You don't actually think I would go anywhere with her, would you?

**Sword:** *sings like a gondolier* Its a beautiful night! Oooo, can I do the disclaimer? Our author only owns Gauge. Everyone else is owned by Sega.

And please enjoy.

**Chapter 6- Wha****t** **Do They Want?**

Everyone sat in G.U.N.'s conference room, seated at a round table with black chairs, as they waited for the commander. Shadow and Silver sat a few chairs apart, but kept throwing nasty looks at each other. Blaze shook her head while Rouge constantly nudged Shadow, giving her own dirty look.

Sonic sat near Shadow and chuckled until Amy whacked his head and glared at him. He sheepishly grinned and sat silently. Knuckles, who was displayed on a video communicator of Tails' own invention, laughed and pointed at Sonic. Sitting next to Knuckles, the young fox sighed and wondered what was taking so long. And last was Gauge, who sat next to Tails and tossed a small ball of electricity up and down.

A door to the room slid open and a man in a dark green uniform, adorned with various medals and ribbons, walked in. He had a folder tucked underneath his arm and carried his cap under his other.

Rouge and Shadow both stood and saluted, causing everyone else to stop what they were doing and follow suit. Gauge quickly tossed his ball away, accidently hitting the video communicator and causing it to fizzle.

"Watch it!" Knuckles yelled, as his image was broken up by several lines and moved all around.

Gauge laughed sheepishly. "Sorry."

"Everyone, please be seated," the man said. As everyone took their seats, he opened the folder and spread out several papers. "I'm Captain Hamill. G.U.N. has requested the military's assistance in this matter."

"So you know what's happening?" Amy questioned.

"Some of it," Hamill replied. "Our recon has found that portals of immense energy are opening and closing all across the country." He pulled out a small remote, pressed a button, and an image of such a portal appeared on the wall. "It seems everytime one opens, something comes out of it."

"From another dimension?" Shadow asked.

"We believe so." Another press revealed some sinister robots. "Mainly its been machines such as these."

"Hey, those look like Egghead's!" Sonic cried. "So he's behind it!"

"Not quite. Dr. Eggman hasn't been sighted near these. Although we believe his bomb may have caused them to start appearing." Hamill zoomed in closer on one of the robots. "Besides, these seem to carry a mark different from Eggman's."

Blaze and Silver gave each other a look. "Nega," she whispered.

"Well what are they after?" Rouge asked.

Hamill held up the blue Sol Emerald and the white Chaos Emerald. "We recovered the Chaos Emerald shortly after Eggman's last defeat. However," he put away the Chaos Emerald and gazed at the blue gem. "We found this a few days ago where a portal appeared." He let his eyes wander around the room, glancing at everyone before continuing. "Whoever is controlling these new robots wants these."

"I bet ol' Eggy wants 'em too," Sonic murmured.

"Yes, we-" but an they were interrupted by someone's voice calling for Hamill. "Yes what is it?"

"Sir! Another portal has opened. It seems like two more emeralds have come from it! And the machines are closing on it fast!"

"Send all available units and nearby patrols now!" Hamill ordered as he ended the communication. He turned to Shadow and Rouge. "Perhaps it would be best if you two went as well."

Shadow nodded and Rouge and him left. "So where's that leave us?" Sonic asked.

"Well it would be in everyone's best interest if we were to find the other emeralds. Heaven knows what would happen if Eggman or these new machines find them first. Speaking of which," he looked at Blaze and Silver, "I noticed you two seem familiar with these emeralds," he held up the Sol Emerald, "and this new enemy."

Blaze nodded. "Yes. Both come from my land. I've been charged with protecting them."

"I see. Well would you mind coming with me and answering some questions?" He noticed Silver moving between Blaze and him, shooting daggers with his eyes. "And you are welcome to come too."

Blaze whispered in Silver's ear. He slowly nodded and relaxed as they both followed Hamill, leaving the other five alone.

"Well, guess we better find the emeralds," Sonic suggested, preparing to dash off.

"We'll need my tracker," Tails said. "So we should head for my workshop."

"Ok. You coming Knucklehead?"

Knuckles crossed his arms with a huff. "No. Someone needs to watch the Master Emerald. Besides, I already have one." He held up the red Chaos Emerald.

"Good stuff," Gauge commented. "Well let's go."

"You coming Ames?" Sonic asked. Everyone seemed to freeze momentarily as they took in what Sonic had said. Sonic actually asking Amy to come along on an adventure. Knuckles' jaw hung while Tails and Gauge eyed each other.

Amy seemed visibly stunned, but her face quickly broke into a smile. "Sure! I'd love too!" She hugged Sonic, squeezing the air out of his lungs.

"Okay! Okay Amy!" Sonic gasped as he managed to pry her off. "Let's get going!"

* * *

"Doctor, reinforcements for G.U.N.'s army are on the way!" a panicked droid informed Eggman.

Eggman sneered and picked up the droid by his neck. "Well then send out the Eggflyers!" The droid nodded and Eggman let him go and he quickly raced out of the room. Eggman turned his attention back to the back to his computer screen on the wall, showing two views. One showed him the battle from different cameras on his robots while the other displayed a tactical map of the area.

Eggman was slightly relieved by the fact that this battle with G.U.N. and his counterpart was taking place high above a group of islands and not at the Mystic Ruins. He had already recovered the green Chaos Emerald there and his scanners had picked up two emerald signatures coming from these islands. He was positive Nega also had a couple of emeralds as well, which is why Eggman was devising a way not only to get away with the unclaimed emeralds, but Nega's as well.

His viewscreen showed his Eggflyers, eggshaped pods with spinning helicopter blades and armed with missile launchers, emerge from his ship and began destroying G.U.N.'s ships and land forces. He still had some of his forces attacking Nega's ship to keep him at bay, but both of them had formed somewhat of an alliance by concentrating of G.U.N. more than each other.

Below he could see he could see his and Nega's robots destroying anything and everything on the islands. Hills were decimated and trees feel over effortlessly before their armies. As for G.U.N., many of their vehicles were abandoned and burning wrecks while bodies littered the ground around.

Eggman left the room, very gleeful at the mayhem, as he decided to check on his ship's factory and make sure more of his drones were being produced.

* * *

"Hurry up!" Sonic yelled as he tapped his foot impatiently outside of the workshop. Gauge and Tails had been inside for five minutes to get the emerald tracker and a couple of other gadgets.

"Hang on!" Gauge called from inside. He held the tracker and scratched his head. "You sure?" he asked Tails.

Tails nodded. "Positive. Give it a few more minutes." Both of them hid near a window and quietly peeked out as they saw Sonic pacing while Amy took in their surroundings.

Sonic himself was feeling nervous as well. Casting quick grins at Amy as he passed her followed by his eyes immediately retreating back to the ground or sky. He could've sworn it was almost as if he had been left here with Amy, which presented an excellent opportunity.

Instead of pacing, Sonic began taking slower strides and rubbing his chin in thought. This change caught Amy's attention, who asked, "What is it Sonic?"

He turned to her. "Uh, nothing."

"C'mon, you can tell me," she smiled.

"Maybe you were right," Gauge whispered as he lifted the window higher to hear better.

Sonic came closer to Amy and sat on the ground. She followed suit and waited while he tried to think of how he could phrase what he wanted to say. Just like before, he couldn't come up with anything, so he decided to wing it. "Hey Ames."

"Yes?"

Sonic slowly turned, gulping. "We've known each other a long time huh?" Amy nodded. "And I wanted ta say you've been a really good friend."

"Oh," Amy replied somewhat sadly and looked at the grass.

"But." Amy's head jerked back up. "I think I," he paused and looked down like Amy at the suddenly interesting ground.

"Yes?" Amy leaned closer, his lids lowering.

"I think I," Sonic stuttered.

"C'mon!" Tails whispered in a pleading voice from inside. "You can do it Sonic!"

"I." Another gulp as he looked up, feeling sweat pour down his face and the scent of Amy overpower him as she leaned ever closer. "I l..l-l-lo-."

**A/N:** And cut!

**Sword:** What? No! More, more, more!

**Pen:** Oh I find this so highly amusing.

Just so people know, this story will be updated less frequently due to work and school. Anyway,

**Sword:** Reviews?

**Pen:** Critiques?

Or comments? We would love to hear them.

**Sword:** Hey Pen! Ready for our back-from-vacation fight?

**Pen:** What?

**Sword:** En garde!


	7. Chapter 7: More Than I Expected

**A/N:** Woo! Sorry, we've been busy.

**Sword:** I've been eating candycanes!

**Pen:** Christmas isn't here yet you dolt.

**Sword:** But candycanes are! Yummy!

As usual, I own known of the characters except Gauge, Pen, and Sword. All others are owned by Sega.

**Pen:** And now for your reading displeasure, here is-"

**Chapter 7- More ****Than I Expec****ted**

"A little more than I expected," Rouge commented. Shadow and her had arrived to assist G.U.N.'s forces against Eggman and Nega's forces. Instead, they found many of the soldiers retreating, unconcious, or worse while foes poured upon them.

Shadow merely grunted as he rushed over to save a soldier from being smashed by a drone. Leaping into the air, he homing attacked it, ripping right through its chassis. "Run," he told the soldier, who grabbed his gun and quickly ran off.

Shadow picked up a nearby assault rifle and fired at some flying drones who had several soldiers pinned down behind a rock. He took out two of the three. The third one turned on him and fired, causing Shadow to dive out of the way. Before he could shoot back, a white boot came down on the drone from behind, sending it crashing to the ground.

"You need more target practice," Rouge laughed from in the air above the wrecked robot. She pulled out her own gun and barked orders to the soldiers, who began attacking.

Shadow snorted and raced over to them, eager to join the battle. He lifted his gun, took aim, and fired at the enemies racing towards them.

* * *

"C'mon," Tails whispered, egging Sonic on while Gauge and him stayed hidden. He was almost bouncing around as Sonic and Amy leaned closer.

"Guess you were right," Gauge said. Just then, Tails heard a loud ringing. He quickly searched around and found it coming from his communicator. "Shut it off!" Gauge hissed.

Tails turned it on, shaking it as if rattling something loose inside would stop the ringing. Knuckles' face appeared on the screen. "Hey!" he shouted. "I need your help! Someone's going for the Master Emerald!"

"Ssssh!" Tails kept shaking his communicator. "Knuckles! Keep it down!"

Gauge was peering outside the window and saw Sonic pause and look in their direction. "Damn! They can hear us!"

"Knuckles! Keep it down!" Tails pleaded.

"What?" Knuckles hit something metallic offscreen and Tails heard a loud thud. "I can't hear you! Look, c'mon down here quick!" Knuckles turned away and fought some more things out of view.

"Ok, ok!" Gauge replied, crawling over to the communicator. He poked it and the screen fizzled and died. Gauge breathed a sigh of relief. "Man that was close!"

"What was close?" a voice asked. Both of them turned around to see Sonic and Amy standing over them. "Well?" Amy repeated her question as Sonic tapped his foot.

"Um, er..." Tails mumbled.

"Knuckles is in trouble!" Gauge shouted. "Someone's taking his emerald." He nudged Tails in his side.

"Yeah!" the fox added, catching on. "He just called us! And he was close to losing the emerald, which is what I was saying." He smiled nervously, hoping Sonic and Amy wouldn't ask anything else.

"Well we better go help ol' Knucklehead then," Sonic replied. He raced to the basement of the workshop, where the planes were kept, with Amy in tow.

"Close one," Gauge commented. "Both us nearly being killed and them kissing."

"Yeah," Tails sighed.

"Freaking Knuckles," Gauge added as he went after Sonic and Amy.

"Yeah."

* * *

"Hey you!" Knuckles shouted at a robot who had sneaked behind him and was climbing the stairs. The robot's head whirred around to briefly see Knuckles fist coming straight for it before it was destroyed.

Knuckles kicked the body down the steps. It fell in front of a small army of similar robots, all armed with an assortment of small arm weapons from machine guns to grenade launchers.

One such robot took aim at Knuckles and fired a grenade. Knuckles dodged and braced himself as the blast left a hole in the steps. He snarled and turned to the robots. "You dare destroy this shrine?" he roared.

Knuckles jumped into the middle of the drones and swung his arms left and right, not caring who or what he hit. As long as he felt his spiked gloves digging and tearing through metal bodies, he would keep going.

He hefted one of his foes above his head and threw it with all his might at a few. Then he grabbed an arm of another and swung it around, knocking down any who had been trying to approach him. Knuckles felt the arm detach and saw the robot's helpless body fly through the air and into a tree. Yet this didn't slow him down since he used the arm to smash apart the others.

Eventually, his new weapon folded in half from overuse and became useless. Knuckles tossed it aside and went back to what he knew best. He used his gloves to dig underground and tunnel underneath the machines, who were now clawing at Knuckles' hole in a vain attempt to widen it and follow him.

Knuckles crawled underneath them, feeling like an ant making a new tunnel for its nest. After several seconds, he stopped and listened to the machines above. "Should be good enough," he thought aloud.

He faced up and with a mighty punch, burst from underneath the ground, knocking several surprised enemies aside and immediately continued his assault on them, doing his best to keep them away from not only the Master Emerald, but the Chaos Emerald he had hidden in the shrine as well.

Knuckles began panting as his punches were losing their power. Yet it seemed like the wave of robots was endless. "You guys...,"he muttered as he pulled one drone's head off and tossed it like a frisbee into another, "Better hurry."

* * *

"Move forward!" Rouge shouted to one of the captains. Shadow and her had reached the frontline of the fight. G.U.N.'s forces were barely holding up and destroyed weapons and tanks, as well as many bodies, littered the space between them and the enemy.

The captain complied and signaled for his squad to move up to an abandoned jeep. As they ran for it, two of the soldiers were hit. One in the leg, causing him to fall and moments later become riddled with bullets. The other took a bullet to the chest, but his armor took the damage.

Once the squad was behind the jeep, Rouge signaled to Shadow. He nodded and took aim at the drones watching the line. He counted twelve, with many more in tow. Yet many were guarding the entrances to either ship.

Shadow took aim and shot down eight of the drones before running out of bullets. Immediately, Rouge popped out of cover and took out the remaining four, clearing the way for the squad to make their way to Eggman's ship.

"Good work at that distraction," Rouge radioed the squad. She turned to the remaining G.U.N. soldiers and ordered them to follow the squad. "And remember, the emeralds are priority number one. Eggman is secondary." At once, the moved out and soon Rouge and Shadow were alone.

"Ready for our part?" Rouge asked Shadow, as they turned their attention to Nega's ship. Shadow checked his gun and nodded, dashing off in its direction. Rouge smirked and flew after him.

**A/N:** Whew, I'm beat! Hope you enjoyed this chapter. And comments?

**Sword:** Praise?

**Pen:** Critiques?

Well then just let us know. Can I have a candycane?

**Sword:** Sure! But Pen can't since he hates Christmas!

**Pen:** When did I say that?

**Sword:** You're never happy!

**Pen:** So?

**Sword:** So you don't like Christmas! And Rudolph will come and eat your nose, which powers his own! So you will be helping Santa deliver presents! So cut off your nose meanie!

**Pen:**...Um...

**Sword:** En garde!


	8. Chapter 8: This Is Gonna Be Fun

**A/N: **Ok...and done. And just in time.

**Sword: **Hi again everyone! Can I have a hug?

**Pen:** *restrains Sword* You're not allowed near anyone, remember? People could catch your stupidity.

**Sword: **Aww...*sniff*

**Pen: **Anyway, the author owns only Gauge, Sword, and myself. All other characters are owned by Sega.

Now we give you-

**Chapter 8- This Is Gonna Be Fun**

"Team! What's your status?" Rouge radioed to the forces heading for Eggman. Shadow and her had been running for several minutes towards Nega's ship, trying their best to avoid being spotted. Both of them ducked behind bushes as a patrol of flying droids made their way past them, going towards one of the scattered skirmishes around the island.

"We're closing in!" a voice answered her. "ETA to target ship is two m- What the hell?" A loud explosion was heard and the voice on the other end panicked. "Find some cover! Stay low!"

"Captain?" Rouge asked. Shadow glanced at her and then studied their surroundings, deciding which way would be best to approach Nega's ship.

"We're pinned down! They're coming from all sides!" the captain responded. A faint voice could be heard saying, "Fire in the hole!"

"Rouge," Shadow said. She looked up and saw Shadow motioning for them to move.

"Those aren't Eggman's! They're Neg-Argh!" The captain's voice was silenced with a yell. Now all Rouge could hear was the sounds of more screaming and sporadic firing.

"Rouge!" Shadow hissed. "We need to move! We can't wait around!" He grabbed her wrist and jerked her up to her feet. He pulled her forward a few steps before letting go and taking off. Tucking her communicator away, Rouge followed Shadow to their target.

* * *

"Did you get all of that Lieutenant?" Hamill asked, turning in his chair to the man next to him.

A young man, dressed in the same sort of G.U.N. outfit as Hamill, and sporting an innocent, boyish face, looked up from his typewriter. He nodded and pulled the paper out. "Yes sir. Every detail about the emeralds," he replied as he handed it to Hamill.

Silver and Blaze sat opposite the two at a table, exchanging questioning looks with each other. Each one seemed to be thinking the same thing. That they had to get out of here and find the emeralds.

"Thank-," Hamill began to say to the lieutenant, but a voice on the intercom interrupted him. "Captain Hamill?"

"Yes?"

"The Colonel has ordered that more troops be sent to the island. It seems our initial forces were...wiped out."

Hamill sighed and massaged his forehead. "All right," he replied. He turned to the young man. "Lieutenant Kelvin?"

"Yes sir?" The lieutenant sat up straighter in his chair.

"I'd like you to lead battalions 34 and 55 to the island. I trust that you'll be able to handle it?"

The lieutenant stood up and saluted. "Yes sir, I will!" And with that, he quickly exited the room.

"Good man. Exemplary soldier," Hamill commented to no one in particular. He turned in his chair to face Silver and Blaze. "I apologize for the questions, your majesty," he said, surprising both of them, "but your information did help us."

"So can we go?" Silver asked. He was already on edge, especially with the possibility that Nega could have all the emeralds by now.

Hamill mulled it over quietly to himself, before nodding. "Yes, you can. Let me give you both communicators so we can keep in contact with you if we have anymore questions." He stood up and walked over to a desk, pulling two communicators out of its drawer. He handed the devices to them and briefly showed them how they worked.

"Thank you," Blaze said.

"You'll be able to keep in touch with each other as well." Hamill walked back to his seat. "I'm guessing that both of you will be going after the emeralds?" he asked. Blaze and Silver nodded. "Well, it would probably be more beneficial if you went to the island with Agents Shadow and Rouge."

"Which is?" Silver inquired.

"I've already uploaded them on your communicators," he answered. "It should lead you to them, Eggman, and Nega." They thanked him again and left, leaving Hamill alone. He folded his hands and looked at the safe where he was keeping him two emeralds. "God help us," he muttered.

* * *

"How much longer?" Sonic whined, He impatiently drummed his fingers in his seat while Amy sat besides him, looking out the window.

"Almost there," Tails said.

Amy looked to the back seat to see Gauge falling asleep. He kept slapping his face in a vain effort to stay awake. "Are you all right?" she asked. Gauge nodded and mumbled something about feeling tired.

"Its probably the electricity," Tails told Amy. "He hasn't had any recently. But he'll get some when we- We're here!"

Several hundred feet below them was Angel Island, floating in all its majestic glory. Tails manuevered the Tornado in closer to the island. "I don't see him," Tails said.

"Me either," Amy replied.

Sonic finally caught sight of the Master Emerald shrine and a red figure surrounded by an endless amount of machines. "There!" he cried. He unfastened his seatbelt and climbed onto the side of his seat. He let out a loud whoop as he jumped out and freefell to the ground.

Amy rolled her eyes and sighed. She shook her head and smiled as Tails landed the plane nearby.

* * *

Knuckles heard the yell and glanced up quickly. He saw a spinning blue ball that slammed into multiple robots. It then uncurled and landed in front of him, revealing the blue hedgehog. "Looks like we're just in time!" he said.

"And about time too!" Knuckles replied. Both of them stood back to back and began fighting. "So is it just you?" Knuckles yelled over the crunching of metal.

"Nope!" Sonic answered as he homing attacked several flying droids. He pointed out the figures of the others off in the distance.

Knuckles nodded and broke the head off of a nearby machine. "Just make sure these things don't reach the emerald!"

"Gotcha!" Sonic ran circles around two robots and created a tornado to throw them into the air. He grinned as they plummeted back down onto their friends and did it again to two more unlucky foes.

Gauge huffed behind Amy and Tails, who were already in the midst of the fray. He bent over and tried to catch his breath. His hands shook and his chest felt clammy, almost as if he was going to be violently ill.

At his feet, he saw a lead pipe. Despite his condition, he chuckled softly and picked it up. "And just in time," he muttered. A robot had him in its sights. Using all his remaining strength, he leapt at it and grabbed ahold. He drained all the energy out of it and immediately felt rejuvenated. "All right!"

Five more robots nearby heard him and rushed over, surrounding Gauge and cutting off all escape. Gauge twirled his pipe and was about to swing when an idea crossed his mind. He held the pipe out in front of him and sent the electricity coursing through his body into the pipe. A small burst of it shot out with a bang and hit one of the droids square in the chest.

"Oh this is gonna be fun," he smiled as he turned to the remaining droids.

* * *

Shadow held up his hand for Rouge to stop, then signaled for her to come closer. She saw that they had reached Nega's ship, which was cranking out more mechanic soldiers nonstop.

"Where do they find the time to build all of them?" Rouge wondered aloud.

Shadow was uninterested in her musings however. He was focused on searching for a way into the ship. He spotted a weak point in one of the patrol's movements and pointed it out to Rouge. When it opened again, they both ran for it and moved stealthily to the ship.

Once they were close enough, Rouge grabbed Shadow's arms and flew them up to the ship. "Too bad we can't use your emerald," Rouge grunted.

Shadow pulled out the blue Chaos Emerald. "We may have to if we run into any resistance."

They finally landed on the top of the ship. Shadow located a door near the bridge and they headed inside. But before he could close it, the door snapped shut behind them. The clang reverberated down the empty halls and an alarm went off. A voice that seemed to be coming from all around them said, "Welcome. Prepare to die."

**A/N:** Whew! Done with that chapter! So-

_**What will happen to Shadow and Rouge? Will Silver and Blaze be able to help?**_

Oh geez. Not him again.

**Sword:** Hey! Its that...one guy...

_**Will Knuckles be able to protect his emerald? Will Sonic ever confess his love to Amy? And why is Pen such a stick in the mud?**_

**Pen:** Why you little-

_**Find out next time on- Ow!**_

Out, out, out, out! Get the hell out of here! As for everyone else, you know the drill. Critiques, praise, or comments, let us know.


	9. Chapter 9: Where's Nega?

**A/N:** So we know it's been a while. Sorry.

**Pen:** Where's Sword?

Aw, do you miss her?

**Pen:** Don't be foolish.

She's still on vacation. Anyway-

**Pen: **Hold on! She gets a vacation and I don't!

Well, you haven't earned it. Anyway, I own none of the characters besides Gauge. All others are owned by Sega. Here is-

**Chapter 9-Where's Nega?**

"Sir! We have the emeralds!" a small robot informed the large man who sat in a chair on board a large carrier in the helm, surveying the battle below. The chair slowly spun around to reveal a bald head and gray mustache accompanied by eyes of pure hate and malice.

"Good," he replied, his sinister voice oozing out. "And the last two?"

"Sensors indicate they are at a building known as the G.U.N. headquarters."

The man folded his hands together in thought for a few moments. "Tell the forces on Angel Island to head there immediately. And set a course for us as well."

"What about our troops on the ground?" the robot asked.

The man leaned forward in his chair slightly. "Leave them. They're of no further use"

The droid saluted. "Yes, Dr. Nega!" it responded, quickly running off to it's duties. Nega sat back in his chair and saw his opponent's flagship off in the distance. He smiled as it, and the island below, slowly disappeared from his view.

* * *

"Woah!" Rouge shouted, nearly falling over. Shadow caught her in his arms and pulled her to her feet.

"We must be moving. We don't have much time," Shadow yelled over the sound of the alarms. He finally pulled out one of his pistols and shot it out, but several others still reverberated in the hallways.

"Right," Rouge nodded. She looked at where they were. There were paths leading to their front, right, and left and nothing differentiated them. All were gunmetal grey with flashing red lights. "I'll take the right," she thumbed the path.

Shadow nodded. "I'll go forward. Try to find the helm. I'm sure Nega will be there."

Rouge pulled out her gun and checked the ammo. Nearly empty. So she tossed it aside and opted for her sidearm pistol as well. "Gotcha." And with that, she took off down the hallway.

* * *

As Knuckles snapped a gun over his knee, he looked up to see what was left of the attackers fleeing. They moved in a calm, collected way as one would expect robots to do instead of falling over one another to escape the path of the destruction their fallen comrades had been in. The echidna boasted proudly at the top of his lungs, catching the attention of his friends. "Is that all you got?"

The rest of the group looked up to notice the robots either flying off or being carried off into the sky. "Strange," Tails murmured.

Sonic stepped onto the chest of one robot and kicked it's sputtering head. "Yeah. They gave up too easily."

Knuckles shrugged as he walked to the shrine and picked up the red emerald that he had hidden from view. "As long as they didn't get this or the Master Emerald, I don't care."

Sonic walked over to the echidna and held out his hand. "Knuckles, give it to me. I have a feeling we'll need it."

He nodded and handed it over to the hedgehog. "I figured as much. How many of the others have you found?"

"Including this one?" Gauge asked. "One." Knuckles slapped his forehead as Gauge shrugged. "So where now?"

Tails pulled out his tracker and tuned it. "We need to find the others. Knuckles, how about you come with us?"

The guardian held up his hand and shook his hand. "No, I need to be here in case they return." They offered to stay with him, but Knuckles waved them saying they would be needed elsewhere. Despite his external bruises, cuts, and gashes, he still had that fighting spirit in his eyes that he was known for. So, after leaving him with a first aid kit and making sure his communicator still worked, the group left the echidna to his shrine, which he quickly took sentry upon, on the lookout for any sign of activity in the forest surrounding it.

The group walked back to the Tornado, Tails and Gauge at the front, examining the tracker and trying to pinpoint the exact position of the other emeralds. This left Sonic and Amy to trail behind, each in their own silent thoughts and exchanging nervous glances with one another. Or more that Sonic was the one looking slightly nervous while Amy giggled at it.

She swung her arms back and forth, almost tempting Sonic to reach out and grab ahold of one. And he nearly did, slowly inching his hand toward one of her's until Tails turned around and told them they needed to hurry. Sonic quickly pulled his arm away, losing his nerve. He cursed whatever invisible force had been silently working against him all this time as he picked up his pace.

* * *

"We're here," Kelvin announced to Silver and Blaze. They all looked out for the helicopter they sat in. From the window, they could see the dozens of other helicopters and several ships, enough to make a fleet, heading for the island, where Eggman's fleet of aircraft was still stationed.

"Where's Nega?" Silver asked as the helicopters began to descend. He grabbed hold of a railing on the inside to steady himself.

Kelvin put down a pair of binoculars he had been looking through and shook his head. "I don't know. Last report said he was here. Maybe we'll find out more once we're on the ground."

Nearly twenty minutes later, all the ground forces had been deployed from the ships. The helicopters were currently forced to stay grounded as well since Eggman's defenses had shot down two when they tried to recon the area. Seeing as this was the lieutenant's first big assignment on his own, he was nerve wracked somewhat, but kept everything under control with some help from Blaze.

"You! Set up a perimeter around the helicopters with mines planted every fifteen feet," Blaze ordered one group of soldiers, showing off her queen experience, before turning to another. "You! Recon the mountains and report every ten minutes!"

Both groups looked at Kelvin. "You heard the lady! Let's move! Get your asses in gear!" he yelled, clapping his hand to emphasize their urgency. The soldiers quickly ran off as Kelvin let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks for that," he said to Blaze.

The princess nodded. "My pleasure. We should try to find your missing troops before attacking Eggman's carrier."

Kelvin nodded, but before he could reply, his radio buzzed with a call. "This is Lieutenant Kelvin," he answered.

"Sir. I believe we found the missing troops," the called said. "You may want to see it for yourself."

* * *

Shadow gritted his teeth, wondering if he should instead try to find the power room rather than the helm so he could shut off the alarms. He would have shot each and every one out, but common sense told him that he would need every bullet he could get. Especially for someone as dangerous as Nega.

So far, the security had been surprisingly light. Some gun turrets in the corners and a few mindless drones, but nothing to put up a real fight. And that had the hedgehog on edge. Before he would reach an intersection or door, he would pause and take a quick look around just to make sure he wasn't walking into an ambush.

"What the hell is going on?" he muttered. "There should be more than this." He continued down the twisting and turning hallways, following the overhanging signs that conveniently pointed in the directions of certain rooms.

Eventually Shadow found the door to the helm. Above the door, a security camera swiveled back and forth. As Shadow watched it, it suddenly stopped moving and focused on him. An unseen intercom from the darkness that the alarms didn't light up turned on. "Hm, you look like Sonic, but you lack the pesky blue color. Pity. I was hoping for a chance to kill him," a voice said.

"You must be Nega." Shadow's grip on his gun tightened.

The voice gave a short chuckle. "Yes, I am he. But may I have the pleasure of knowing who you are so that I can chisel it on your tombstone?"

"Shadow," he replied.

"Ah yes. My bumbling doppelganger mentioned you. Said you were just as good as Sonic." Shadow could practically see the devious smile that was surely adorning the man's face. "Let's see if that is true."

A loud thud at the end of the hallways was heard. Shadow turned to see his way was cut off. Then he heard a soft humming, like thousands of angry bees swarming to him. In a quick flash, Shadow saw and felt several blades rip and tear at him. He managed to dodge a few before it stopped.

Shadow widely turned around, gun trained on whatever target he could find. That was when he saw several robots standing in front of the door to the helm. Yet they were different from any previous versions Shadow had encountered. They were very thin, obviously making them near impossible to hit. And instead of a gun or explosive weapon attached to their arms, there were blades long enough to be considered scythes.

"Meet my newest creation," Nega chuckled. "The Nega Reaper. Deadly accurate and fast, as you've apparently seen." Shadow felt the sting of the slices on his arms that were steadily bleeding. "The forces back on the island should already be dealing with a larger group of them. Yet there is still enough here that you have no chance of winning. Goodbye, Shadow the hedgehog." And with that, Shadow was left alone with the robots.

They stood almost like a praying mantis, clacking their blades together in anticipation for Shadow's first attack. Shadow could see that bullets were of no use so he dropped his gun and pulled out his chaos emerald instead.

"Chaos Spear!" he shouted as he threw three deadly beams of yellow energy at three separate droids. Each one hit it's mark in the droid's flat head before exploding, leaving only five left.

They rushed the hedgehog, who held his emerald tightly and summoned more power from it. "Chaos...control!"

* * *

"What the hell happened here?" Kelvin wondered aloud. Blaze and Silver stood at his sides, also surveying the gruesome scene they had come upon while dozens of soldiers stayed in the back, some puking and adding more disgusting smells to the scene.

They had found the missing soldiers. Or what was left of them anyway. Bodies were torn and strewn across the ground with various organs spilling out. The blood-soaked grass carried a rich smell of death that seemed to fit well with the faces of horror on the few bodies whose heads were still attached.

A coreman that had been kneeling over one body stood up and shook his head. He pulled off his latex gloves as he faced Kelvin. "Sir, from what I can tell, every person here was cut with near surgical precision. Almost as if they were wielding some sort of blade."

Kelvin rubbed his temple. "A blade? Like a sword? And you're saying that could take on a whole battalion with guns?"

The coreman sighed. "I know. But that's the only thing that makes sense."

Kelvin turned around and began pacing back and forth. Blaze glanced over at Silver, who returned it. They could think of only one person that was this sadistic.

But before either of them could voice their thoughts, the coreman suddenly gasped in pain. Everyone turned to see the man lifted into the air, with a curved blade sticking upwards in his chest. His eyes pleaded for someone to help, but nobody could move. The blade effectively cut him in two and threw him off to the side to reveal an odd robot, standing almost like a praying mantis and shaking the blood off it's arms, or more precisely scythes, since that is what it's arms ended in.

"Nega," Blaze muttered, seeing his symbol on the robots chest. She took a fighting stance as several more came out from hiding spots behind or in trees and bushes. Glancing back at Kelvin, she told him that Silver and her would take them on. "Go for Eggman's ship. We need those emeralds."

Kelvin swivled around, looking for some escape, but all exits were blocked off. Seeing this, Silver took control of one robot's arms, spread them out, and caused it to spin into some of it's fellow droids nearby, slicing them apart. Then he forced the droid to hold it's scythes to it's own neck and cut it's head off.

Silver nodded to Kelvin, who signaled his men to follow before more came. "Move it! Hurry!" And with that, Silver and Blaze were left alone to face the twenty-something number of robots.

"Ready?" Blaze asked Silver. She quickly calculated some idea of a plan while keeping on eye on the approaching robots.

Silver nodded and backed into her so they stood back to back. "Yeah."

**A/N:** Don't worry. We'll write more very soon. We just thought we should at least get one more chapter out.

**Pen:** I still demand my vacation. I've earned it.

Oh yeah? Well how about this. Let the reviewers decide. If you'd like Pen to have a vacation as well, then if you leave a review when you give us your comments, praise, or critiques, then also tell us.

**Pen:** This will not go over well.


	10. Chapter 10: You'll Pay For That

**A/N:** Hello everyone. Guess who's back?

**Sword:** Hi!

**Pen:** That was a short vacation.

**Sword:** Yeah. That's because I learned something. Never use people's cars in the parking lot as a ramp for a team of sled dogs you recently shaved in front of everyone in a hotel.

...Uh, anyway, here's the next chapter. As usual, I only own Gauge and the plot. Everyone else is owned by Sega.

**Sword:** And never put teabags in the toilet. They don't taste like tea afterwards.

**Pen:**...You're an idiot.

**Chapter 10-You'll Pay For That**

Silver picked up two of the robots with his telekinesis and smashed them together as if they were a pair of life-size action figures. Dodging another one that reached for him, Silver took note of their present situation and gulped. There were more of the praying mantis droids than before and more kept coming.

"Geez! How many are there?" Silver wondered aloud as he jumped back from a blade.

Blaze was exhausting herself, throwing fireball after fireball. When several jumped at her, she concentrated her power on them, turning her hands into a flamethrower of sorts and roasting the robots to a crisp. They fell down, their circuitry buzzing and snapping with sparks.

Silver was about to comment on her kill before three unseen droids sliced him across the stomach. He cried out from the deep wounds, alerting Blaze to his pain. "Silver!" she shouted in a panicked voice

He fell to the ground and his vision began to blur. He could barely make Blaze hovering over him or hear the robots closing in over his oncoming headache. Looking down his body, he could see his gloves coated in red as he covered the wounds. He felt something warm against his cheek. A hand. Blaze's hand rubbing his cheek. "Are you alright?" she asked.

"I don't know," Silver replied in a quivering voice. "My eyes," he paused, looking around for a few seconds. "Everything's a blur."

Blaze's own voice became shakey and ragged. She blinked rapidly, not caring that the robots were merely a few feet away. "Don't you die on me," she whispered.

Silver looked up at her, or what he could see of her. He nodded and felt something wet on his cheek. He touched it and wondered if it was raining.

Blaze wiped her nose on her sleeve and choked on her threatening sobs. She had to keep telling herself over and over that Silver would be fine. If only to keep her own sanity. Removing her hands, she suddenly looked up at the robots, who were poised to strike. The princess' hate-filled eyes were nearly aflame and her hands held flames in them.

She stood up and blasted away a few robots in front of her. She rounded on the rest as she breathed deeply before speaking. "You'll pay for that."

* * *

Shadow ducked and dodged the swings, letting the droids failed attacks slice the air with a muffled whoosh. Each time though, his injuries would sting and he would grimace, holding himself back from showing any sort of pain.

He kicked one into a wall and once agains, used his Chaos Spear on two of the robots. The one that flew into the wall was soon joined by the last robot and Shadow stomped on them until he could no longer hear their internal machinary whirring.

The ebony hedgehog's ears twitched when he heard clapping. Faint clapping and a chuckle to accompany it. He turned, but nobody was around. He then heard Nega's voice. "Bravo. You know, I had actually designed those using some dna from Sonic's blood." Nega sighed. "I guess it wasn't enough."

Shadow snarled and glared at the door as if trying to burn a hole through it. "I'll come after you next."

"Well allow me to make it easier for you." The door slid up and bright sunlight poured into the dark hallway. Shadow shielded his eyes and cautiously entered the helm.

Several droids froze and looked up at their boss, who sat in a chair at a control panel. Nega waved them off and they resumed their duties. The balding man spun around in his chair with a sickly smile on his face. "Ah, Shadow. Welcome." He turned back to the control panel. "If you had told me you had one of my emeralds, I would have gladly opened the door."

Shadow took in the scene around him, surveying for some trap of any kind. Yet all he saw were little robots running to and fro around him, operating the various machines that Shadow could only guess ran the ship. But his head snapped back to Nega when he heard his comment. "Your emerald?"

"Yes, my emerald," Nega replied. "I have quite a collection for myself now. So nice of you to bring another one to me."

Shadow growled, but noticed the sea outside the window. His eyes widened slightly and he walked over, looking for any sign of land. "Wait. Why-"

"Are we not at the island?" Nega finished for him. "Simple. I already retrieved the emeralds from there. And I can come back to salvage my opponent's emeralds once G.U.N. has taken him down."

"So then where is this ship heading?"

"The G.U.N. headquarters of course." Shadow spun around while Nega busied himself with some controls. "With most of their forces gone, it's the perfect time to snatch their emeralds."

"I won't let you," Shadow stated firmly, running over to Nega and grabbing him by the collar.

Nega gave a short chuckle as he stared into Shadow's determined face. Soon, he had burst into a laughing fit and came close to tears. All the robots once again froze, asking him if he was fine. Yet these were lost among the laughter, which was grating on Shadow's nerve.

"What the hell is so funny?" the hedgehog asked, giving Nega a quick shake to jolt him out of it.

Nega calmed down and took off his glasses, wiping his beady eyes. "I'll tell you what's funny. That you believe you can stop me."

Shadow roughly pulled the old man closer, pressing his nose into his face. "Who says I can't? I could kill you right now if I wanted."

"And then the precious emeralds you so desperately want would be gone?" Nega retorted. His lip curled into a nasty grin. "They could be on any of my ships and I've rigged each ship to explode if something should happen to me."

Shadow glanced to his sides, seeing the ships flying along the flagship. He weighed his options, wondering if the mad doctor was bluffing or if he was serious about it. "Yes, feel like going for a swim to look for them?" Nega asked.

Shadow growled. "I can still keep you from doing anything to G.U.N.," he answered.

"True," Nega paused, "but who's going to keep me from doing anything to your partner?"

A door off to the side opened and Shadow looked up quickly. He did a double take when he saw four of the repear robots enter, with a white bat walking between them. Two of them had their blades to her throat while the other two had already stabbed holes into her wings and rested the gleaming blades there. Her face was sliced and slightly bruised, but for the most part, Rouge seemed to be fine.

"Rouge!" Shadow immediately lept off the doctor and ran for her, but stopped when one of the bug-like robots lifted it's blade closer to her neck, making a slight cut.

"Ah, ah, ah," Nega chatised Shadow as if he were a child that had done something wrong. "Any bravado done will be at her own expense." Nega nodded at the robots. One of the droids with it's blade in her wing cut downward, making the hold larger. Rouge yelled out in agony, kicking at the offending robot, but missing and falling to her knees.

Shadow whirled around, anger of an unbelievable level written on his face. He could barely restrain himself from attacking Nega and beating him to death with the emerald he had tucked in his quills. "Let her go," he said. His voice was full of hate, but barely above a whisper.

"No, but I propose a trade," Nega offered. Shadow seemed to visibly relax ever so slightly so Nega continued. "You for her."

Shadow glanced back to her. The other robot was now joining in the tearing of her wings and it was too much for Rouge to bear. She cried out in pain, forcing Shadow to look away. "Fine," he murmured.

Nega walked over to him and held out his hand. "I'll also be taking your Chaos Emerald."

Shadow frowned, but handed it over. Several robots rushed up and grabbed Shadow while Nega pressed a nearby button. A panel in the floor slid open and the robots shoved Shadow into it.

To Shadow's surprise, the hole was quite deep. He tumbled and slammed against the walls before finally falling into a dimly lit and empty room. The lambent lamp above that gave the only source of light swayed back and forth silently like a pendulum. Shadow pushed himself off the floor and immediately looked for a way out.

In the far corner of the ceiling, a television flickered on, filling up with Nega's face. "Enjoying your accomadations?"

Shadow growled and tried to jump for the television to smash it. Before he could, he was zapped by an unseen turret that came out of the wall. After he fell down again, the turret retreated back into the wall while Nega cackled. "If I were you, I wouldn't exert myself too much. You'll need that energy later for my experiments."

The hedgehog stood up shakily, trying to shrug off the tingling sensations running through his veins. "What experiments?"

"Well I had originally planned to capture that infernal Sonic to find a way to make my Reapers faster," Nega explained. "But you'll do just fine."

Shadow could still see Rouge being held by the Reapers behind Nega. He pointed an accusing finger at the doctor. "You said you'd let her go!" he shouted.

Nega nodded, stroking his mustache. His beady eyes held a dangerous glint to them as he turned to the robots. "Yes, I did. And I'll make good on that." He pressed a button nearby and another floor panel slid open. The robots ripped Rouge's wings some more and knocked her out before throwing her in it.

"And there she goes," Nega smiled, turning back to Shadow. "I've held up my end of the bargain. She's off the ship."

Shadow almost relaxed before an thought flashed through his mind. They were still over the water. And there was no way that Rouge could fly away with her wings in such a state. "You bastard!" he yelled as he jumped for the screen again and was once more put down.

Nega laughed heartily at Shadow. "Yes, I do believe the little bat's flight will end," he put his glasses back on, "with a splash."

* * *

"Man, this thing seems to give off loads of power," Gauge said to Tails. He held up the Chaos Emerald Knuckles had given them.

"Yeah. Though the only ones who can use it are Sonic and Shadow," Tails explained.

"Really?" Gauge twirled it in his fingers. "Has anyone else tried?"

Tails shook his head and kept walking. "No. You have to have a lot of willpower to do it. You're welcome to try if you want."

Gauge stopped, along with the rest of the group, and held the emerald up high. He spread his legs apart and closed his eyes, concentrating on drawing the power from it. His whole body began to convulse and he held his lead pipe, gripped tightly in his hand, to the sky. A red beam at the end formed, growing steadily in size.

"Gauge," Sonic said, "that's enough. Let it go!"

Gauge dropped the emerald and held the lead pipe with both hands before firing the beam into the air. He immediately collapsed, breathing heavily. Sonic rushed over and picked him up while Tails retrieved the emerald. Amy watched the red light fly further into the air.

"Ya can't use that much power your first time," Sonic told him. He patted Gauge on the back, who weakly nodded.

"I think I'll just leave it to you then," he wheezed, coughing several times. "That drained me."

"I'm surprised you could do it at all," Tails said, looking between Gauge and the red jewel. "The only reason Sonic and Shadow can even use them is due to their connection with them."

Gauge stood up, nodding to Sonic that he was better. "Maybe it was the explosion?"

Tails nodded in agreement. "Possibly. You could have absorbed some chaos energy, which in turn could have charged your cells. Though it must have been an microscopic amount since my scanners never picked it up." His eyes widened as if he had just realized he left the oven on at home.

"What's up Tails?" Sonic asked. "Ya got that I've-got-a-theory look in your eyes."

"I do! I-"

"Um, guys?" Amy called to them, pointing upwards. Everyone followed her finger to the sky and saw a tiny dot appear behind the clouds, falling at an increasing rate toward the ocean.

"What is that?" Sonic questioned.

"At the rate of fall," Tails gulped, "it can only be a person."

Sonic eyes widened and he grabbed Tails hand. "C'mon! You're gonna hafta catch them!" And with that, he dragged the young fox off, heading for the edge of the island while Gauge and Amy ran after them.

* * *

Blaze let out a roaring battle cry. She had leapt into the air and was throwing fireball after fireball at the oncoming robots. After destroying several in the manner, the enraged cat let loose a stream of fire, burning any remaining ones close by.

She landed gracefully on her feet and ran for the rest. Though Blaze was not much of a hand to hand combatant, that did not stop her from kicking and punching the droids with an intensity to match the fire that she ejected. Just in case they might recover, she lit her hands on fire so that when any punch was delivered, it would burn through their plates of metal and destroy the circuitry inside.

By now, any straglers who were late to the fight were now fleeing in the direction they had come. Blaze saw this out of the corner of her eye. So, she rushed over to Silver and summoned all her remaining energy. She let loose a wave of fire, careful to make sure the hedgehog was not caught up in it. It eminated from her and spread out, taking down all the droids in one fell blow.

With the attack completed, Blaze collapsed on top of Silver, both of them panting hard and unsteadily. Blaze could feel his heartbeat, hard and frantic. This jolted her own mind as she remembered that Silver needed help as soon as possible. So, despite her body pleading otherwise, Blaze pushed herself up and began to drag Silver back in the direction of G.U.N.'s camp.

All the way, she called for a coreman, or anybody, to help her while constantly saying reassuring phrases, moreso to herself than Silver, over and over. "You'll make it," she muttered, heaving Silver along another few feet. "You'll make it."

**A/N:** So, critiques, comments, etc? Then feel free to leave a review.

**Sword:** Oh! I got everyone sourveniers!

**Pen:** You did?

**Sword:** Yup! I got...postcards!

**Pen:**...You dolt. You're supposed to mail those while on vacation.

**Sword:** Hey! Don't make fun of the gift I got you! En garde!


	11. Chapter 11: Nice Catch

**A/N:** Hello everyone.

**Sword:** Hi, hi, hi, hi, hi, h-

**Pen: **Enough.

Once again, I only own Gauge and the plot. Everything else is owned by Sega.

**Chapter 11- Nice Catch**

"C'mon Tails!" Sonic shouted. Although his call was useless since he was dragging the poor fox by the arm anyway.

Tails was trying to fly and run at the same time to keep up with the blue hedgehog as they neared the edge of Angel Island. Before he knew it, Sonic stopped, pulling Tails back from falling off the edge.

Sonic pointed at the still falling black dot. "There they are!" He turned back to the fox. "Let's do a rebound!"

Tails nodded and grabbed Sonic by his arms. Spinning his namesakes rapidly, he quickly took off, flying as quickly as possible while trying to steer with the added weight.

When they had gotten closer, Tails squinted his eyes and thought he could make out the figure. "Rouge?" he muttered. The figure's pink and black attire became clearer, as did the white fur. Tails' eyes widened. "Sonic! It's Rouge!" he announced.

"I know!" Sonic replied. "We need ta hurry! Do a rebound now!"

Tails ran through several calculations in his head. Taking into account their current speed, as well as Rouge's, and the height and angle, Sonic should be able to make it. Or so Tails hoped. He gripped Sonic's arms tighter before doing a somersault and throwing Sonic directly at Rouge. He watched as Sonic sped direcly for her, silently praying that he would reach her in time.

Sonic tucked his arms at his sides and pointed himself slightly below Rouge's position. The wind whipped his face harshly, making his eyes water as he got closer.

"Gotta time it just right," he told himself. They only had one chance. If he did not reach her in time, then the combined fall and water would kill them both.

When he determined that he was close enough, the hedgehog levelled out and reached for Rouge's arms. He took hold of one and the immediate added weight threatened to pull him down. However, he summoned more strength to pull her up while at the same time curling into himself. Pushing forward and then back, he homing attacked himself back to the two tailed fox, who hung in the air waiting for them.

"C'mon Sonic," Tails held out his hands while crossing his fingers, toes, and almost his namesakes. Sonic uncurled and stuck on hand out for Tails while the other held on tightly to Rouge's arm. Tails dove for the hand and clasped his with it.

"Whoa!" Sonic cried, feeling the sudden jerk in his arm nearly pull it out of it's socket. He grinned and looked up at Tails. "Nice catch bud."

Tails merely grunted and headed back for the island, flying as fast as possible so that he could soon drop the heavy load.

* * *

"Damn it!" Shadow cursed loudly in his cell. From his current situation, it looked like there was no way out of the room. All the walls were too thick for him to break and there did not seem to be a door anywhere.

The dim and dying source of light from the overhanging bulb swung slowly, back and forth. It's flickering beam barely lit up the edges of the room, much less the corners. Shadow decided to sit in one of those corners and try to figure out some way out of here.

Ever since Nega had shown Rouge getting thrown off, or so Shadow could only assume, he had been in the small prison alone. He could tell they were still moving. That much was clear. And he had been in there for at least an hour. Yet, the ebony hedgehog had no idea where the ship was.

"There's got to be some way to get out of here," Shadow muttered. After he had attempted to smash through the walls, he had opted to climb back out the way he had fallen in. Unfortunately, there was nothing to grip inside of the metal tube.

"Faker and his friends had better hurry," Shadow grunted as he stood up and took to looking for any sign of a weak point in the high, solid walls.

* * *

"No, no, no!" Eggman screamed. He pulled at his nonexistant hair and was quickly pushing all manner of buttons that he could. He glanced back at the monitors around him that showed fires on different levels of the ship, pieces of the hull and interiors breaking away, and G.U.N. forces swarming onto his ship.

His precious ship.

"What else could go wrong?" he grumbled. As if an answer to his question, the floor beneath him creaked and the large doctor fell into a newly formed hole.

He picked himself up, groaning and dusting off his clothes. All around him, droids and robots either ran around trying to vain to put out the fires or heading off to fight the G.U.N. soldiers.

"It's time to leave," Eggman told himself. "But first the emeralds."

However, this was not the mad doctor's day. At that moment, a squad of G.U.N. soldiers rounded the corner, led by a young man. All of them had their assault rifles trained directly on Eggman and any robots still in the vicinity.

"Eggman!" the leader shouted. "This is Lieutenant Kelvin of G.U.N. Surrender and order your forces to stand down!"

"And if I don't?" Eggman replied, taking a step back.

"You don't have a choice," the leader answered. He flicked on a laser sight at the end of the gun and aimed it at Eggman's forehead. "Don't make me do this."

Eggman turned on his heels while yelling for all the droids to stop what they were doing and attack. Behind him, he could hear gunfire and the sound of metal being pierced, but he did not care. All that was on his mind was saving the few emeralds he had.

On his way though, he was again confronted by more soldiers in a room with four separate paths. To his left was the room holding the emeralds and to his right was his Eggpod. His only escape.

"Why me?" Eggman lamented as he tried to decide which way to go. The soldiers were coming closer and he knew that it was not possible to grab the emeralds and still escape. So it was all a question of which was more important: the emeralds or his life?

Staying true to his character however, Eggman sprinted down the right hallway while commands to stop and more gunfire echoed after him. He wheezed and coughed when he made it to the end of the hall. At the end was another small room where several Eggpods sat dormant. All a cunning ruse though since all, but one were fake.

The doctor climbed into the real one and started it up. He caught his breath and coughed some more as he made empty vows to start exercising some more. Pressing a large red button, he gripped the steering handle as the pod rumbled to life and slowly lifted in the air.

"Halt!" a voice yelled from below. Other commands were shouted as well while shots pinged against the hard metal of the pod. But the engines drowned them out and the pod took off into the air through an open hatch.

* * *

Kelvin's radio buzzed with another grunt's voice. He flicked it on and answered. "What is it?"

"Dr. Eggman has escaped," the soldier reported.

"Damn it!" Kelvin calmed himself, holding back the anger that threatened to unleash itself on the one who had been picked to relay the message. "And the emeralds?"

"In our possession," the soldier answered a bit happily.

Kelvin nodded, although the soldier could not see it. "Good." He pressed another button on the radio that broadcasted his voice to all the troops inside the carrier. "All forces. We have the package. The rabbit has escaped, but we have the package. Everyone report back to base."

He put the radio back and signaled for the men behind him to regroup and follow him. "Let's move!"

* * *

Sonic and his group left the unconcious Rouge with a very enraged Knuckles. When they had brought her back to the echidna's shrine, he immediately began to go on about how he would rip Nega and Eggman apart in a very gruesome fashion. Thankfully, Amy calmed the guardian down by reminding him that Rouge needed someone to take care of her.

So, after Tails had checked Rouge's vitals and made sure she was alright, they left a few medical supplies behind and went back to the Tornado. Gauge and Tails hopped into the front while Amy and Sonic took the back seats.

"She'll be fine," Tails said, breaking the silence that had hung over the group ever since leaving the shrine. "Most of the injuries weren't life threatening."

Amy nodded and turned to look out the window while Gauge helped Tails out with the controls. "Be careful now. The last thing we need is for you to kill the engines," Tails warned him.

Sonic scooted closer to Amy and tapped her shoulder. "Ames," he asked. The pink hedgehog turned to face him. "You alright?"

She sighed and faced the window again, resting her chin in the palm of her hand. "I don't know. I just keep thinking about how bad Rouge is."

Sonic scratched his head. "But Tails said she'd be fine."

Another worried sigh. "Yes, but if it hadn't been for me seeing her, she could've..." She trailed off, not wanting to utter her horrible realization.

Sonic turned Amy's head to him and stared solemnly into her jade eyes. "But she didn't. You don't have ta worry Amy. I wouldn't let Nega do that ta ya."

"I'm not worried about me," Amy explained. She waited for Sonic to catch on, and when he did, she continued. "He's not like Eggman. He won't restrain himself."

Sonic placed his hand on her shoulder and turned Amy around to look at him face to face. "Amy, we can take him. We will win." He was eye level with her, searching for any trace of her doubt still.

Amy smiled weakly and blinked rapidly, holding back a stray tear. "Alright," she nodded. Then she noticed exactly how close Sonic's face was to her's. Apparently Sonic must have noticed it as well since a slight blush crept across his face.

"U-um," he stuttered, drawing a complete blank as to what to do. He glanced at the front seats and saw Tails and Gauge still running over the controls and trying to locate the remaning emeralds. He turned back to Amy and gulped, figuring it was now or never.

He leaned a bit closer and heard Amy quietly gasp in surprise. He could swear he heard both of their hearts beating rapidly as the distance closed steadily and their eyelids fluttered shut.

However, before their lips could connect for the intended kiss, Tails yelled from the front, "Hang on!" and the plane took off into the sky. The sudden jolt threw everyone back, forcing Amy to fall into Sonic's arms.

The blue hedgehog mentally sighed, but when neither he or Amy made any sign of moving, he allowed himself to grin a little. Amy glanced up questioningly for a moment, but seemed to decide not to look this gift horse in the mouth and hugged Sonic a bit tighter.

Tails' intercom buzzed to life and the fox quieted everyone as he turned up the volume. "HQ...atta...Nega...," the voice said, broken up by static.

Tails turned around in his seat, somewhat surprised at Sonic and Amy's position. Gauge noticed them as well, but nobody said anything about it. "It sounds like Hamill," Tails said to Sonic.

Sonic nodded in agreement. "We should head back ta G.U.N."

**A/N:** There's something to tide you over for a while.

**Sword:** Comments?

**Pen:** Critiques?

Then please let us know.

**Sword:** Bye, bye, bye, bye, b-

**Pen:** Enough! En garde!


	12. Chapter 12: I Promise

**A/N:** Hello everyone!

**Sword:** Oh let's all go to the lobby! Let's all go to the lobby!

Sword, get back here! We need to present the story! Ugh. Alright Pen, I guess i- Where are you going?

**Pen:** I am hungry. Therefore, I decided I would go and get something to eat. Everything here is filled with sugar and things better left unexplored.

Aw, geez. I could use something too. Before I go, I only own Gauge. Everyone else is owned by Sega. So enjoy.

**Chapter 12- I Promise**

Fires blazed in all corners of the large building, burning away the material that held the structure together. Already, floors had completely given way and smashed the inhabitants below while chunks of the walls fell away to the ground below, smashing cars and causing widespread panic. All in all, Nega's attack on the G.U.N. base was going smoothly for the mad doctor.

Hamill, trapped on his floor, had barricaded himself in his office along with the remaining personnel that had had the misfortune of being trapped with him. He stood defensively behind his desk with a pistol while the soldiers wielded assaults rifles from his side. A simple ruse, however feeble, to throw off Nega into searching the desk's area instead of the emeralds' real location in a hidden safe behind a painting. Cliche, but it had worked over the years he had been captain.

He yelled into a small radio, repeating the same phrase he had been for the past twenty minutes. "I repeat, this is Captain Hamill of G.U.N. headquarters in Station Square. We are under attack by hostile forces. Someone respond." He waited for several seconds before letting it drop with a curse and focusing on the door.

A deafening explosion sounded outside the room, causing all the men to ready their guns and aim them at the door. Hamill, glanced quickly at the painting and then back to the door, before another explosion rocked the room and destroyed the entire wall where the door used to be. Instantly, bullets filled the air, ricocheting off whatever intruder was coming in. Bullets and missiles answered in response, killing several of the soldier and knocking down the rest.

"Damn machines! I said guns only!" a thunderous voice roared above the ringing in Hamill's ears. "The emeralds cannot be destroyed!"

Hamill looked up through the smoke and saw a dark figure approaching, flanked by dozens of robots wielding weapons ranging from machine guns to scythes and more. The figure stood in front of Hamill and smiled sickly while stroking his gray mustache. "I assume you're in charge?" he asked.

Hamill stayed silent and slowly reached for his gun. Unfortunately, the man saw the attempt and kicked the pistol aside. "Now that's no way to treat a visitor," he warned. One of the robots, wielding a scythe on his arm, slipped the blade into Hamill's uniform and lifted him up to face the man.

"You're-"

"Nega," the man answered. "So you know what I'm here for. And I'll only ask once. Where are the emeralds?"

Despite the intense stare of the doctor and the robots aiming at his chest, Hamill stayed silent. Nega nodded to one of the robots with holding a gun and it shot his leg. Hamill hissed, trying not to cry out, and looked around at the robots surrounding him. They stood guard at every corner of the room.

Hamill's eyes must have lingered a nanosecond too long on the one standing in front of the portrait because Nega followed his eyes and smiled widely. "Ah, so that's where they are." He nodded to the robot, who promptly turned around, ripped off the painting and punched through the safe, creating a large hole in it.

Nega walked over and pulled out the white and blue emeralds. He held them up to the light of a small fire on the ceiling and smiled. "So nice of you to keep them safe for me," he told Hamill.

"You bastard! I won't let you get away with this!"

Nega chuckled and gave the emeralds to one of his robots, who deposited them into a hidden compartment on his chest. "I won't end that stupid cliche with the equally ridiculous answer," Nega replied, giving Hamill a swift kick in the leg where he had been shot. The captain's knees buckled and threatened to give way beneath him. "But I will leave you here to watch your precious headquarters burn with you in it."

The blade holding up Hamill released him and he collapsed to the ground. Looking up, he saw the entire room empty of his enemies, with Nega being the last to leave. Before he could do anything, a missile was shot at the ceiling, causing debris to fall and bury his escape route.

Hamill dragged himself over to the wall and sat himself up against it. He touched his leg gingerly, earning another hiss of pain from his lip, before taking off his coat and pressing it against the wound, hopefully applying enough pressure to stop the blood flow. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes, allowing the scent of ash and burning metal inhale his sense. All he could do now was wait.

* * *

"Sonic!" Tails cried out. Everyone inside the Tornado immediately followed the fox's pointing. Outside the window, they could see the G.U.N. headquarters, swarmed by flames from the middle and up, with Nega's ship hovering high in the sky.

Sonic growled, "Nega." before he told Tails to head for G.U.N. and drop them off.

"What about Nega?" Tails asked.

"He can wait," Sonic replied. "We gotta help the people inside G.U.N. first." Tails nodded and sent the plane into a dive, heading straight for the roof of the building. Sonic grabbed Amy's hand and they both jumped from the plane when it was deemed close enough. Gauge stayed behind, saying he would go to Nega's ship and start poking around. Tails agreed with him and informed Sonic he would come back to pick up Amy and him after dropping off Gauge.

"Ready Ames?" Sonic asked, as they found a maintenance door on the roof. She nodded and they both ran inside. After making their way down a long stairwell, they came to the top floor of the building.

"We should start here," Amy said. "The people below the fire probably already left."

Sonic nodded in agreement and dashed throughout the rooms, searching for anybody left inside while Amy went downstairs to the next floor and conducted her own search. It was like this for every two floors, both of them searching, but only finding destroyed rooms or burning bodies.

The first time she had come across one of the dead bodies, Amy had nearly broken down. However, almost as if he could sense her distress, Sonic had immediately been at her side to comfort her, shielding her eyes from the grisly scene. "Ya don't have ta keep searching," he said gently. "I'll do it."

Amy had refused, reassuring him, and herself, that she was capable of handling this. So Sonic had let her continue, but their search still yielded no results. At least not until Amy reached one floor with the fires seemed the largest and the smoke the thickest. She called out, hoping that someone in this building was still alive. The smoke invaded her lungs, causing her to hack and cough something awful, but she still persisted.

And that was when she heard it. A faint reply, coming from behind a wall of rubble and debris. Smiling like she had just won the lottery, Amy excitedly called for Sonic, who was at her side in a minute. "What's wrong Amy?" he asked anxiously.

Amy pointed to the debris. "I found someone." Sonic nodded and pulled Amy back before curling up into a ball and attacking the rubble. Amy shielded her eyes as dust and bits of rock flew by around her. When she could no longer hear the blue hedgehog hitting the pile, she opened her eyes to see a large hole leading into the room behind it.

"You're right Ames," Sonic told her, poking his head out of the hole. "There is someone here. Good job." He ducked back inside as Amy climbed through the hole after him.

The fumes from the fire inside the room quickly dispersed, letting Amy see that it had once been quite a prestigious office. She located Sonic, over in the corner and kneeling down, and rushed over to him. She gasped in surprise at the person who looked at the both of them with weak eyes. "Captain Hamill?"

The man coughed and nodded slowly. "Yes."

"Who attacked you?" Sonic questioned, holding the captain's shoulder to steady him from slouching to the floor.

"Nega," he wheezed, the smoke slowly starting to take effect on his lungs. "He came...Took the emeralds...Killed my men."

"Sonic," Amy whispered. The blue hedgehog looked up. "I think this can wait until later. Right now, we need to get him out of here."

He nodded. "Right." Sonic flung Hamill's arm around his shoulder while Amy repeated the action with the other arm. Together, they both lifted him to a shaky stand and proceeded to their exit, hoping that no hidden surprises lied in wait on their way to the roof.

* * *

"So what was that theory you were going on about before?" Gauge asked as they watched Sonic and Amy enter the burning building.

"Hm? Oh!" The fox snapped his attention back to the situation and turned the Tornado around in the direction of Nega's ship. "I said I think I have an idea why all the portals are opening up everywhere."

"And that would be?"

"The Chaos Emeralds," Tails put simply. Gauge cocked an eyebrow while Tails pulled the plane up into a steeper incline. "See, I think your powers originate from the blast. Some of the chaos energy seeped into your cells and let you manipulate electricity and a small amount of chaos energy."

Gauge watched the front window as the flagship, as well as the rest of Nega's ominous fleet, grew larger. "How do you figure?"

"Well," Tails leveled the plane out a little, "you were able to use the chaos emerald earlier. Not only that, but it would explain everything else. I would have to run some tests, but because you absorbed some chaos energy, the Chaos Emeralds are unstable and need to make up the difference."

Gauge's eyes widened, both at the statement and several small attack robots that homed in on the Tornado. "So they brought the Sol Emeralds here to do that?"

"Yes," Tails replied. He squeezed the triggers on the back of the control stick, sending a hail of fire towards the attackers. "There's only two ways that we can theoretically stop it. One, your death."

"I prefer to live," Gauge answered as one of the robots exploded near the nose and bits of it were caught in the propeller. "What's the second option?"

"I could build cases for each emerald to stabilize them and then we could send the Sol Emeralds back with Blaze. But that will take some time." He dodged and weaved around the remaining drones and continued talking in his simple discussing-the-weather tone. Gauge marveled at his pinpoint precision and handling of the plane's weapons and controls while staying this calm. "But first things first. We have to get all the emeralds!"

"Right!" Gauge nodded in agreement.

Tails pulled up alongside the flagship and held it as steady as possible while Gauge climbed on the edge. Tails turned around briefly to shout, "Be careful!"

Gauge laughed. "I'm a thief, remember?" And with that, he jumped and pushed away from the Tornado, free falling to the surface of the large flying contraption that had Nega's symbol painted on both sides.

* * *

Blaze sat diligently in the dark green tent on a red chair. Her eyes never left the sight of Silver lying in the white bed next to her. His chest was bandaged up as best as possible and he was not in any immediate danger of dying, or so the doctors had told Blaze. Right now, he silently slept in an unconscious state, his chest slowly rising and falling with soft, quiet wisps of breath escaping his lips.

The princess fought back hot tears that were attempting to race down her face once again. It nearly broke her heart seeing him like this. She kept replaying the event over and over in the cinema reel of her mind's eye, wondering if she could have done more. After several attempts to blame herself and to blame Silver's naivety, like she usually did, she sighed and settled on the decision that it was over and all she could do was wait.

There was a loud commotion outside and suddenly someone burst into the tent. Blaze turned to see Kelvin with concern etched on his face, while holding the green Chaos Emerald and the red Sol Emerald. "I just heard. Is he-?"

Blaze shrugged and turned back to Silver. "He's hanging on for now." She eyed Kelvin and his treasures. "I take it the mission was a success?"

He nodded and held the emeralds up higher for her to see. "Yes. Although we lost Eggman, we got what we came for." He handed her the red emerald while he held the green emerald up to the light for a better look. "Beautiful," he whispered. "And to think so much power resides within them."

Blaze nodded. "Which is why the sooner we find the rest, the better."

Kelvin seemed to hardly hear her, simply grunting an agreement in acknowledgement as his eyes shined with the brilliance of the emerald. "So amazing." He passed it to his other hand. "I bet this could help us so much."

The princess looked up curiously at Kelvin's face and frowned at what she thought she saw in his eyes. "They can also be used for evil."

"True," he agreed. "But used wisely, it could help defend people, be used for research." He brought it down and clutched it tightly as he stared off into a bright future only he could witness. "The possibilities are endless."

Before Blaze retorted, she noticed that something seemed to be missing. "Where are Shadow and Rouge?" she asked.

Kelvin snapped out of his daydream and looked around. "You mean they aren't here?"

Blaze shook her head. "We thought they were with you." Before either of them could utter another word, one of Kelvin's men burst through the flaps of the tent. Quickly saluting, he informed them of an urgent message.

"What kind of message?" Kelvin questioned.

"An emergency call from headquarters. We couldn't quite make it out," the soldier informed him.

Kelvin looked back at Blaze and sighed. "Rouge and Shadow will have to wait. Is he fit to travel?" He nodded toward Silver.

"I think I am."

Blaze gasped and spun around in her seat to see Silver blinking at the bright lights in the tent. He gave Blaze a crooked smile and sat up in the bed. "When do we leave?"

"Now," Kelvin replied. Turning back to the soldier, he ordered him to round up everyone available and send most of them back to G.U.N. "Support teams will stay here and pack up. Then they will join us. Am I clear?" The soldier answered with a salute and a shout of "Sir!" before dashing out of the tent to pass along the message.

Blaze steadied Silver and helped him swing his legs over the side of the bed. "We'll be out in a few minutes," Blaze told Kelvin. He nodded in response and left the two of them alone. "Are you sure you're well enough to go?" Blaze asked, her worried expression voicing her concern.

Silver nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Besides, they need everyone they can get." He pushed off of the bed and, with Blaze's help, limped over to the tent's entrance.

The princess sighed, knowing that what he said was true, but still worrying about what could happen. "Just promise you'll be careful this time," she asked, giving Silver a hug and resting her head on his shoulder.

He was surprised to say the least at the sudden embrace. It was one of the rare times Blaze showed any of her deeper emotions to him, and him only. Needless to say, he was both flustered and honored that she would trust this side to him. So, his heart beating rapidly, he returned the show of affection, causing Blaze to squeeze him tighter in her arms. "I promise," he whispered.

**A/N:** And there you have it! Hey Sword, I'll trade you some candy corn for some skittles.

**Sword:** Sure! Besides, Pen didn't get anything good anyway. All he has is healthy stuff.

**Pen:** Apples are very good for you and taste good.

Anyway, comments or critiques? Then please leave us a message.


	13. Chapter 13: There's Something You Should

**A/N:** Buuuuurn...out...

**Sword:** Uh-oh! Looks like the author is getting burned out!

**Pen:** So we can stop all of this?

**Sword:** Nope! We have to continue on until the story is done! We'll just dress up and act like the author.

**Pen:** No.

**Sword:** Yes! Oh, and to the people out there: we don't own any of the characters except Gauge. Sonic and all related characters belong to Sega. And we own the plot. Now c'mon Pen.

**Chapter 13-There's Something You Should Know**

"Do you see him?" Amy asked. Sonic and her were both scanning the skies atop the roof while holding Hamill to his feet as best as possible. The constant fumes rising from the lower floors and the strain on their muscles to drag him up there was causing Amy's knees to shake slightly.

Sonic shook his head in response before speaking. "Not yet. Don't worry. He'll be here," he said encouragingly.

Amy nodded, but she could not help but think that his plane may have been shot down while near the flagship. Or worse, Gauge and him could have been captured. She shook these thoughts away though and put on a positive demeanor, at least in front of Sonic.

Little did she know that Sonic was doing the same thing. He too thought that the fox had been gone too long and that the flames were getting a little too close for comfort, but he did not want Amy to worry. He hated to see her in any negative state like that, so he kept a small smile on his face while throwing looks of encouragement at her.

The failing twilight though revealed nothing but twinkling stars dotting the sky. Sonic too was starting to get worried about his little brother. A moan from Hamill brought him back to the current situation and he hefted Hamill up higher. Silently praying and wishing, he kept searching the skies for the familiar sight of the plane.

It was at least several more minutes before they heard the familiar buzz of the Tornado and saw it heading for them. The sight caused Amy to wave widely to signal the plane while Sonic pumped his fist into the air.

Tails landed the plane quickly and smoothly and hopped out to help them. "Sorry I took so long. After I dropped Gauge off, some of Nega's robots chased me around."

"We're just glad ya made it bro," Sonic replied as they lifted Hamill into the plane.

Tails strapped Hamill into the seat and jumped down, waving for Sonic and Amy to move. "C'mon, let's go. This place won't hold up much longer."

"What about Gauge? Are we going to pick him up?" Amy asked.

"He's got the communicator from earlier," Tails replied. "So he'll radio in when he's found something."

"Well let's get goin'," Sonic said, jumping into a seat and pulling Amy in along with him. Tails nodded and climbed into the front, started the engines, and took off before the flames could lick the wheels of the Tornado.

Tails breathed a sigh of relief and muttered "Just made it." while Sonic chuckled like he did at any dangerous situation and Amy swatted him playfully. "We could have been burned alive," she reprimanded.

"But we weren't," Sonic shrugged.

Amy shook her head and smiled. Tails laughed briefly at the exchange before noticing that the Tornado's radio was coming on. "Hello?" a familiar voice called.

Tails hit a few buttons, but kept his focus on the now night sky. "Hello?" Tails replied.

"Tails?"

"Blaze?"

Sonic and Amy leaned forward yelling their hellos into the radio while they heard Silver do the same thing on the other end. Blaze could be heard chuckling and playfully telling Silver to stop acting like a little kid before she spoke directly to Tails again. "Where are you?"

"We're in the city," Tails replied."

"Great. Meet us at the G.U.N. headquarters."

There was a dreadful pause as Tails looked to Sonic and then to Amy. Sonic could see the fox's eyes asking one of them to break the bad news, so Sonic volunteered with a nod of his head. "We can't do that Blaze," he answered. "There's something you should know..."

* * *

"Say that again," Kelvin broke in after Sonic's answer. He had been in the front of the helicopter and let Blaze and Silver take the back seat with a few soldiers. He had been half-listening to the radio Blaze held until he heard what Sonic had said. Now the soldiers and him huddled around the portable device, waiting with bated breath in hope that they had all simply misheard.

"Nega attacked the headquarters," Sonic repeated. He paused before adding, "It's been destroyed."

The soldiers' eyes whispered to one another, talking in shock and awe and despair while their lips remained shut in discipline as they waited for their leader to speak. Kelvin swileved his eyes to each person quickly before landing them back on the radio. "Did anyone make it out?" he asked, voicing everyone's worst fear.

"Not everyone," Sonic replied. "Maybe the people on the lower floors."

"So the captain is-"

"With us," Tails answered. "Sonic and Amy pulled him out just in time."

Kelvin let go his held breath in relief and allowed a small grin to grace his face. "Thank you."

"No problem," Sonic replied. Blaze could picture the hero swiping his nose with that all-in-a-day's-work smile and had to shake her head at the image. "So where should we meet up at?"

* * *

Gauge snuck around the hallways, slinking and sliding around corners which he would peek his head out of slightly to make sure the coast was clear before dashing across and halting to make sure no one was following. So far, he had not run into any sign of trouble, but he knew that only meant something was wrong.

Following the signs conviniently pointing to all the different parts of the ship, he eventually found what he had been searching for. The security room, or so the sign flashed above the doorway, was guarded by only a pair of robots. Gauge quickly drained the power out of one and used the gained electricity to zap the other, frying it's inner workings and causing it to collapse in a heap of metal. Gauge smiled and ran inside.

The room was covered in the same dull, metal gray that every other room and hall seemed to be, but the only difference was the hundreds of screens showing every inch of the ship at all moments. Even the outer hull was shown and Gauge could see that the ship was flying higher and further away from the city.

However, Gauge paid no attention to that and focused on his assigned task of locating the emeralds. He figured that Nega would most likely keep them close, possibly even on his person. Gauge walked over to one of the screens that showed what appeared to be the bridge and studied it. On it, he could see Nega ordering around various robots while drumming his fingers on his chair. However, Gauge could only see the back of the chair.

"Hm, maybe there's another camera I can switch to," Gauge thought aloud. He glanced over the keys, buttons, and switches that he could not even begin to guess at their use. Deciding to pick one at random, he muttered "Ennie, meenie, miney, moe!" before pressing a green button.

Instantly a loud buzz came from the monitors and Nega turned around to his console. Gauge saw him press a few buttons and the screen switched to one showing Nega's face. "What is it?" he demanded, but paused when he saw Gauge's face.

"Damn you moe," Gauge whimpered as he dashed away. He heard Nega shouting from the monitor for his minions to go to the room and capture Gauge. So the yellow striped hedgehog pushed his legs as fast as they could go and searched for a hiding place of some kind, not even aware that cameras placed strategically in the halls were following his every movement.

* * *

Knuckles dabbed Rouge's forehead with a wet cloth while sitting at her bedside. They were in his small two-room hut and Knuckles was situated such so that he could sit by Rouge's side, keep an eye on the stove where he was boiling some more water for the cloth, and watch over the Master Emerald from the only window in his bedroom. Rouge moaned softly everytime the dampness soothed her while Knuckles blushed slightly and forced himself to block out her sounds.

Soon, the kettle where the water had been boiling screamed loudly, signaling Knuckles to take it off the stove. But a hand grabbing his wrist stopped him. Looking down with surprise, he saw the bat's eyes slowly blinking open.

"Rouge?" Knuckles questioned carefully, seeing if she could respond at all.

Upon hearing her name, the seafoam green eyes locked with his purple and she slowly opened her mouth. "Where the hell is Nega?" she answered rasply.

Knuckles sat back down in the chair, ignoring the kettle's yelling, and gave her a wry smile. "Just calm down Batgirl," he told her. "You'll get your chance at revenge soon enough."

"No you idiot," she groaned, pushing herself up and hissing in pain. She rested her back against the headboard and looked at him. "Nega has Shadow."

* * *

"Catch him you miserable machines!" Nega thundered as he watched his security force chase after Gauge. So far, Gauge had drained the energy from two of them and was currently hiding from the robots. Nega growled and pushed several buttons on his command console, switching all the screens on it to live feed from the cameras in the hall.

"Let's see him hide now," Nega chuckled. Activating a thermal vision on the cameras, he swept across the rooms until he saw a hedgehog-shaped form hiding in the corner of one room. "Excellent," he smiled. He ordered his troops to the location.

Just as he was about to turn off the feed, Nega noticed something strange about the heat signature readings he was receiving from Gauge. He typed a few commands on his console and received a more detailed reading. Scanning over it, his eyes caught the words chaos energy.

"Traces of chaos energy?" he muttered to himself. "The same as the chaos emeralds?" He stroked his mustache and sat back in his chair, wondering what it could mean. "If his body has absorbed some of the chaos emeralds' energy, then..." He glanced back at the screen and shut it off. "I'll examine him when they've caught him," he announced decidely.

* * *

"Are you sure?" Tails questioned once again, nudging Sonic off of his head. The blue hedgehog was currently trying to lean over Tails and listen to the radio, but his arms were pushing against the controls, forcing Tails to try and right the Tornado every few minutes.

"Positive," Rouge's voice came from the radio. "Nega must have Shadow."

"Don't worry," Sonic told her. He grunted as Tails once again elbowed him. "We'll get 'im back!"

"We're meeting up with G.U.N. now to form a plan of attack," Tails added.

"I'll meet you there then," Rouge answered.

"Are you crazy Batgirl? You're not going out there!" Knuckles voice yelled from the radio.

Sonic snorted with laughter, despite the glares Amy threw him, while the conversation continued. "Like hell I'm not! You can't stop me!" And with that, the radio went dead.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Sonic wagged a finger, closing his eyes as a large, goofy grin planted itself on his face. "Those two are always fighting." He decided to shut up when Amy's dirty looks turned into growls.

"We're here," Tails announced. Sonic and Amy looked out the window to see several G.U.N. helicopters surrounding dozens of tents. Guards were patrolling every square inch of the temporary base with the exception of the soldiers directing them to a landing zone.

"They're fast," Sonic commented. "Wonder if they came up with a plan just as quick too?"

"Let's find out," Amy answered as Tails landed and all three of them exited the plane.

**A/N:** Zzzzz...

**Pen:** That is very loud.

**Sword: **So is this: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

**Pen:** Stop that! En garde!

Zzzz...Comments...critiques?...Let us...know...zzzzz


	14. Chapter 14: Don't Mention It Ever

**A/N:** Hello all!

**Sword:** Yay! He's awake! How'd you do that Pen?

**Pen:** Tea can wake up anyone.

First, I'd like to apologize to everyone. I feel the past several chapters, and one-shots I've made in between, have been shoddy on my part. So I've gone around and been editing some of them. And I promise to deliver all of you my best work, school or no.

**Sword:** Here, here!

As usual, I do not own any of the characters except Gauge. All others belong to Sega. And the plot belongs to me as well. So, without further ado-

**Sword:** Enjoy!

**Chapter 14-Don't Mention It. Ever.**

Kelvin's head raised slightly when he saw Sonic and his friends walk into the dark green command tent. He stood up fully and saluted when Hamill was brought in, supported on either side by grunts. "Sir!" he greeted.

"At ease," Hamill waved his hand and lowered himself slowly into a chair at the table in the center of the tent, where Kelvin had spread out maps, blueprints, and several other documents detailing Nega's airship. One main sheet was the collaborative data of all the recon teams and their probes, and specialists on the matter of airships, hastily scribbled onto an elaborate drawing of what was believed to be the layout of the ship.

"Shouldn't you see the coreman first sir?" Kelvin asked, raising an eyebrow at Hamill's ragged appearance. The captain was breathing too heavily to be considered simply out of breath and there were several marks of red staining his once clean uniform.

"That can wait," Hamill replied. Kelvin twitched a smile at his superior's, and mentor's, stubbornness. "First, let's go over this." He tapped the drawing with his finger while Sonic and Tails took seats close by. Amy sat in one a bit further away since she was not as familiar with the layouts as Sonic and Tails were and therefore could not contribute to the attack plan.

"Here's what we know so far," Kelvin directed their attention to the sheet, holding it down with one hand and pointing with the other. "There are two entrances here," point to the back of the ship, "and here" another point to underneath it. "We know they have turrets and sentries covering the entire length of the ship." He circled the entire drawing for emphasis.

"I'll testify to that," Tails spoke up. Kelvin glanced at him questioningly, so Tail explained, "I took Gauge there so he could try to infiltrate the ship. He'll call us when he's found something."

"Now," Kelvin continued, "we believe that Nega should be holding the emeralds close to the bridge or somewhere he can keep a close watch on them."

"Time out," Sonic interrupted. "Nega's not like Eggbutt. He'll put 'em somewhere no one would think ta find 'em."

"Where do you suggest he would hide them then?"

Sonic rubbed his chin in thought, letting his eyes run over the schematics of the paper. Going through every place that Nega would try to hide the emeralds, he smiled and tapped the area marked prison/holding area. "Here," he stated confidently.

"There?" Kelvin questioned skeptically. "Why would he hold them there?"

"Why not?" Sonic replied. "He's probably got guards there already ta guard any prisoners. And nobody would think ta look there."

"Speaking of which," Hamill said, turning to Kelvin, "has there been any word on whether or not Shadow is in that ship?"

Kelvin shook his head in reply. "Nothing so far. As soon as you told us," he glanced at Tails, "we tried to locate him. We came close to the prison before the probe we were using was destroyed. If he is there, he's under heavy guard."

"So what's the plan then?" a new person inquired. Everyone turned to the entrance to see Blaze supporting Silver by one of his arms. His other arm was pressed tight against a bandaged wound, which threatened to open up at the slightest jerk or sudden movement.

"What happened ta ya?" Sonic cocked an eyebrow.

"Long story," Silver hissed as Blaze dragged him to a chair and took a seat beside him. "So, what's the plan?"

"A small group could get in," Kelvin answered slowly, still unsure about the speculations his tactician had provided him with earlier. "They would be able to get inside and take the emeralds while the main force distracted them from outside."

"So basically, we go in, take the emeralds, and get out while you guys cover us?" Sonic summed it up.

Kelvin nodded. "Exactly." He stood up, placing his hands behind his back and nodded to each of them. He was back to leaning on the table though when a large rumble shook the entire ground of the base, throwing everything around and cutting off a lot of power. All the tables, chairs, and equipment were tossed around like toys while some of the lights flew off from their hooks on the roof, throwing the tent into near darkness.

It stopped as suddenly as it came. When it did, the only one to stick their head up above the table from their position on the ground was Tails, who very meekly asked, "What was that?"

"I don't know bro," Sonic groaned, coughing up some stray dust. "Let's go see." And with that he was out of the tent, followed closely by Tails. Blaze helped Silver up and both of them trailed after the duo, while Amy and Kelvin, supporting Hamill, brought up the rear.

The appalling sight that greeted them froze the group in their tracks. The base had, as was to be expected, suffered some damages. Tents were in disarray, vehicles were upturned or had sunk into newly formed crevices in the earth, and soldiers were frantically running around trying to restore power to the defense network of turrets, anti-air guns, and sentries. Thankfully, only a few grunts were injured and were quickly carried away by medics.

Compared to the city though, the base was lucky. The buildings around them had toppled over, smashing into other and either creating a domino effect or leaning on their brothers, who rumbled and strained to hold them up. Roads jutted up into newly formed ramps over craters of earth, creating a daredevil's paradise, and everywhere people were screaming. Screaming for the police, for God, for anything to assist them.

"My word," Hamill said in barely a whisper. "Who could have done this?"

"I think I know," Sonic pointed accusingly to the sky. Everyone followed his finger to the culprit, a red battleship sitting amongst the clouds, flanked on all sides by it's personal army. From the bottom of the ship, a large cannon was aimed at the ground, right where several craters had just formed.

The cannon's power slowly built up, a bright beam at the tip growing larger with each passing second. The whirring sound of the pent up energy finally turned into a great boom when the shot was released and hurled into the middle of a crowded street, instantly vaporizing anything around and creating another hole in the earth.

"Nega," Blaze growled.

The cannon folded back into the ship, neatly tucking itself into it's hatch. A few seconds later, a small black device replaced it. It swiveled in the direction of the base and emitted a lambent light like that of an old movie theater film at the side of the main tent. Appearing on it was Nega's face, smiling his villainous grin.

"Man, some things between him and Eggbutt never change," Sonic commented behind his hand. "They both like putting their ugly faces on everything."

"I heard that," Nega warned Sonic, but he was answered with Sonic smacking his furry behind at him. Not wanting to be dragged into a childish argument, Nega recomposed himself. "I hope you enjoyed the show," he sneered. "That was just a taste of what will happen."

"Whaddaya mean?" Sonic growled.

"The Nega Cannon," he gritted his teeth when Sonic and Tails snorted, "was powered by only one Chaos Emerald. When it has been powered by all the Chaos and Sol Emeralds, well..." He shrugged nonchalantly. "I leave that up to your imagination."

"What do you want Nega?"

"Ah. If it isn't the princess. All I want are the remaining emeralds and your unconditional surrender."

"And if we refuse?"

Nega grinned. "Then every other city on Earth will be met with the same fate. Only amplified by the other emeralds." He waved to them and chuckled. "I'll give you some time to make your decision. Oh and I'd hurry." A screen of a dark cell popped up next to Nega. Inside, a huddled form glaring angrily at the wall was shrouded in the near darkness. But the group recognized him immediately

"Shadow!" they all cried

"That's right. I'm afraid Shadow might not make it if left in the cell. Those wounds look pretty serious." The camera on Shadow zoomed in, showing it to be true. Shadow's wounds were deep and had left him grimacing in pain. "Bye," Nega sing-songed. And with that, his face disappeared.

Sonic turned to the group, crossing his arms and looking around. "I say we go attack Nega now!"

"Ok. Anyone have any _practical_ ideas?" Blaze asked, ignoring Sonic's childish act of sticking his tongue out at her.

"Well, I think Sonic is right," Tails answered. "This might be the perfect opportunity to attack. Nega's ship is obviously staying in one spot," he pointed out, "and his cannon must need time to recharge. Otherwise he would have just kept firing it."

"What about the other emeralds that Nega has?" Blaze questioned. "Surely you have not forgotten about them?"

Sonic grinned deviously. "Of course not. We got a thief on the inside." He nodded to Tails, who took the cue to leave the group and contact Gauge.

"We'll need time to prepare for the assault," Kelvin told Sonic as he surveyed the base.

"No problem. You can count on us!"

"Don't forget us either," a voice overhead put in. The group glanced up to see Knuckles gliding to the ground, supporting the ivory patient that he had been put in charge of earlier. They both landed, Rouge a little shakily, and turned around. Rouge put her hand on her hip. "I still owe that bastard," she added.

Sonic cocked an eyebrow at Knuckles, who rubbed his neck sheepishly. "She wouldn't stay in bed," he mumbled.

"Ooo, Knuckie. Did you want me to stay in bed?" Rouge purred.

The group chuckled at Knuckles' blush while Sonic taunted Knuckles for "Being whipped". The echidna huffed and crossed his arms, looking away from the group and to the flying ship. "So are we doing this or not?"

* * *

"Gauge?"

Silence. Or almost silence for the yellow striped hedgehog, who covered the radio to the best of his ability while holding his breath. He waited a few moments to check if anyone had heard or if Tails would try to contact him again. After neither happened, he exhaled a sigh of relief.

"Gauge?"

And just like that, he panicked again. Deciding it would be quicker to just answer, he picked up the radio, fumbling with it slightly. "Sssssh!" he hissed, hoping it did not sound like static to Tails. "I'm trying to hide here!"

"Hide?" Tails questioned.

Gauge nodded, then mentally slapped himself when he realized the fox could not see him. "Yeah. There's some weird robots here. Real fast. With scythes-"

"For hands? Yeah, we know. Silver and Blaze ran into a few of them." He paused for a second. "Where are you at?"

The hedgehog surveyed his surroundings. He was in one of the many indistinguishable halls, hiding from the praying mantis-like robots. He had found an open panel where several wires ran along the interior of the wall and had squeezed himself into it. It was a tight fit, but so far, nobody had seen him.

"Hiding in the wall near some wires," he replied. "A few guards have passed me, but they don't seem to notice that I'm here."

"Maybe the robots can only detect heat signatures," Tails suggested. "With your body, and the wires next to you, you must just look like a mass of electricity to them."

"Good thing too," Gauge said. "I don't think I can take these guys on." He heard footsteps off in the distance and covertly poked his head out of his hiding place to take a look. Several of the Nega Reapers, along with a few flying robots, were marching up and down the hallway in search of him.

"Gauge, listen," Tails said. "Shadow is on board the ship. He can probably help you out."

"Great! Where is he?"

"In the prison section."

He was quiet for a few moments before muttering, "Greeeeat," in a sarcastic tone. "That place is sure to be heavily guarded."

"Yeah, we believe so too. Especially since Sonic thinks that Nega is hiding the emeralds down there."

Gauge sighed. "In other words, I can't just waltz in there." He heard Tails chuckle sheepishly, confirming his fear. "Don't worry. I'll figure something out. I'll call you back when I got Shadow." Tucking the radio away, Gauge banged his head against the side of the wall in frustration, but that did nothing to alleviate his oncoming headache and worry.

"How am I even supposed to find the jail?" he wondered aloud, stepping out from his hiding place and slinking along the wall. Dashing between corridors, he kept an eye out for any patrols while searching for some kind of map or sign directing him to the holding cells.

"Like Nega would have a map in here," Gauge scolded his logic. "I'll bet only the robots know where it is, and they aren't talking." He paused at that thought, both mentally and physically, while a devilish plan hatched in his mind. "Or not yet anyway."

He knew it was a crazy idea, probably even suicidal, but it could possibly work. "But I need one of those bots first," he thought to himself. That was when he heard the familiar drone of one of the flying robots nearby. Gauge smiled evilly and rubbed his gloved hands together.

Sticking his body to the wall, he followed the buzzing noise until he reached the hallway where it emanated from. Peeking out around the corner, he saw a solitary drone, hovering back and forth over it's assigned area. "Perfect," Gauge whispered.

He went prone and used his arms to pull himself across the floor, which chafed his stomach harshly. The hedgehog ignored the threat of oncoming belly rashes and moved closer, until he was right underneath the robot. Flipping onto his back, he held up his hand and closed his eyes, manipulating the electrical currents inside the drone. He had to do this carefully and subtly, or risk the chance of some alarm going off on the robot.

After several minutes of poking around, since he had no knowledge of the inner workings of the machine, Gauge finally found what he believed to be the "brain" of the machine. Hoping this would work, he grasped the center firmly with electricity and the robot hovered silently in one place. Gauge opened his eyes, saw his achievement, and punched his other fist into the air in success.

He stood up, keeping a firm grip on the robot by way of a strand of electricity connecting the robot's center to Gauge's hand, and hopped onto it. "Take me to the prison," he commanded, still amazed that it had actually worked. The robot complied and sped off in it's ordered direction.

Gauge scooted down a little so as to hide from any other patrolling robots. But he could not help chuckling at the flying sensation. "Mush!" he laughed.

* * *

Shadow sat in the middle of the room, letting the small bit of light cast it's comforting glow on him. Covering his arms and torso, along with the gashes from his earlier battle, were scorch marks from being electrified by the walls. He had given up trying to find some weak point and tried to regain his strength. His breathing was slow, but heavy and still held his fierce determination.

He was angry beyond belief. More so at himself now than Nega. He was still sore at the mad doctor as it had been him who had put the hedgehog into this predicament. But Shadow was frustrated with himself at failing to find some way out of his situation. Now all he could do was hope the others came to his rescue.

"Damn it," he muttered, knowing that he would never hear the end of it from them, especially Sonic. That alone strengthened his resolve, and the rest of his body as he stood up, to keep trying to escape. "I'll be damned if I'm going to let Faker save me!"

Before he could try to slam into the wall again, he heard several crashes outside his cell. Carefully keeping his distance from the electrified wall, he put his ear as close as he dared and listened. Silence followed the in the wake of the clanging and smashing. Then a hole in the wall in front of him opened.

Shadow shielded his eyes from the bright light and peeked out from between his fingers. In front of him stood a hedgehog-shaped figure that seemed to be waiting for him. "Faker?" he asked.

"Faker? Who's that?" the figure questioned. Shadow's eyes finally adjusted and that is when he noticed the yellow fur instead of the expected blue.

"You."

"Well hello to you too," Gauge replied. He looked Shadow over and frowned. "You look like crap."

Shadow merely grunted and walked over to the newly formed exit, poking his head out and checking for any guards. Yet all he saw was the heap of collapsed robots that Gauge had crashed into and, unknown to Shadow, inadvertently destroyed. "Strange," he commented, stepping out of the room, with Gauge following him. "Shouldn't the alarms-" At that precise moment, all the alarms in the jail corridor sounded, calling for all nearby forces to destroy all intruders.

"You're a jinx," Gauge accused the ebony hedgehog. But when Shadow glared at him, he quickly decided to change the subject. "Um, Tails said that the emeralds should be nearby here."

"Where?"

"That I don't know," Gauge answered. "But I do know how we can find out."

Shadow crossed his arms. "Well hurry up then!"

"Well we're going to need one of them," Gauge pointed at the security force comprised mostly of Nega Reapers and a few flying drones that had arrived at one end of the hall. "Although I can't take the bladed ones."

"Leave them to me," Shadow told him, taking a fighting stance. "You get one of the flying robots."

Gauge nodded, giving Shadow a thumbs up. "Ok, thanks! Guess we're even now."

"Don't mention it." Shadow grabbed him by one of the quills and yanked his head over to face him. "Ever."

"Sure, sure! Gotcha," Gauge replied, wriggling out of the hold and running with Shadow to the force. He leapt on one of the flying drones, who instantly tried to buck him off by flying wildly around. "Yee-haw!" Gauge cried, holding on tight and knocking the other flying robots away with his trusty lead pipe.

Meanwhile, Shadow had found himself surrounded by the Nega Reapers, all sharpening their blades with each other and watching him closely. Shadow remembered the attack pattern the last group had followed, so he could only assume that this group would do the same. He rushed for one, who lifted it's arms high, as did it's neighboring brothers, poised to strike the hedgehog down. But Shadow jumped back at the last second, causing the robot to bring it's arms crashing to the ground and the ones on it's side to accidently cut off it's arms.

"One down," Shadow smiled, watching the robot topple over and shrike in agony in it's indiscernible electronic babble.

The two who had just killed their comrade took the offensive and swung at Shadow. He dodged again, causing one to slice the other in half. Then he kicked the other in it's back, propelling it forward into two others.

"Woah!" Gauge marvelled. "Nice one!" He had finished off the flying drones and was now working quickly to take over the one still trying to throw him off. "Just hold them off a bit longer! I almost got it!"

"Just make it quick," Shadow growled, performing a leg sweep on another Reaper. "I don't have all day." He grimaced in pain from his wounds and was forced to staunch the bleeding of one particularly nasty cut with his hand. This limited him to mainly dodges and kicks to take out the remaining robots.

"Almost," Gauge muttered, feeling his way to the center of the drone. He finally reached it, giving an abrupt cry of excitement and holding out his hand for Shadow to grab hold of. "C'mon!"

The ebony hedgehog jumped above the last few Reapers and firmly grasped Gauge's outstretched hand, while the yellow striped hedgehog directed the drone away from the engagement and toward the emeralds.

"Hold this thing still for a moment," Shadow ordered. Gauge nodded and held it steady and watched Shadow. The surviving Reapers were closing in fast on the flying robot, determined not to lose their quarry. Shadow balanced himself and launched off the drone and curled up into a ball.

In the next few seconds, all Gauge saw was several flashes of black before Shadow returned back to his seat on the drone and the enemies had fallen over. "Woah," Gauge whispered in awe.

"Go," Shadow wheezed, his breathing getting worse, and his hand now soaked with his blood.

Gauge nodded. "Hang on. We'll be there in a bit."

* * *

"Damn it!" Nega slammed his console with enough force to potentially break it. For some reason, it did not give. Instead it continued to show the devastating loss by his security force and Shadow's escape with that hedgehog from earlier.

"I want every one of you pile of useless bolts down there looking for them!" Nega yelled into a microphone attached to the console. His voice echoed throughout the ship, reaching every corner. "Find them or you'll find yourselves being recycled for use to build more competent soldiers!"

With his tirade done, he collapsed into his chair, rubbing his stressed eyes and glancing over at another screen that monitored his masterpiece. His Nega Cannon, powered by only one of the Chaos Emeralds at the moment. As soon as it was done recharging, Nega planned to power it with the rest of the emeralds.

"I need to find a way to let it fire more shots faster," he mused while stroking his mustache. Deciding that it would be a nice distraction from his current intruder problem, and to keep him from impatiently watching the progress screen of the cannon, Nega left to bridge to go to his study and work on a detailed solution to improving the weapon.

Before he left, he took one last look around the bridge and uttered one more threat. "All of you had better protect this bridge with your pathetic lives!"

"Yes sir!" all the robots answered obediently. Nodding in satisfaction, Nega turned and walked out.

* * *

Tails stood back from the Tornado, grinning in satisfaction at the quick repairs he had made to it. The damage from the sentries earlier had not been as bad as he initially thought. And thankfully, the base's temporary hanger, where Tails had moved his Tornado after they arrived, had not been majorly affected by the attack. He shuddered to even think of what would have been the result should such a thing had happened.

Wiping the grime and grease from his hand with a piece of cloth, he carefully packed away his tools and placed them inside of the locked glove compartment in the Tornado. The young fox decided he would go check on the others to see if they were ready and then report to Kelvin and Hamill.

The first room he came upon was occupied by Blaze and Silver. Like many of the rooms in the hanger, it didn't hold much. Just a table accompanied by some chairs and benches. Silver was currently lifting one of the chairs and letting it hover around the room while Blaze watched.

Tails cleared his throat, causing both to turn their attention to him. Silver absently mindedly dropped the chair while Blaze shot him a glare at his carelessness. "We're going to be leaving soon. I got the Tornado ready to go," Tails informed them.

"Alright," Silver replied, hoping that he could direct Blaze's fierce gaze anywhere else but at him.

Tails nodded and left the two alone. The princess refused to take her eyes off the hedgehog as he righted the chair with his telepathy. Silver refused to return her stare and amused himself by lifting his own chair into the air, hovering slightly above the lilac cat.

"You should stay here," Blaze told him.

"Why?"

"Because I said so," she answered, asserting her royal status. "You are not fit to go."

Silver exhaled and spun his chair around, going in circles around Blaze. "Didn't we already talk about this? They need as much help as they can get," he reiterated. "I can't back out now."

"They have enough people," Blaze responded assuredly. "They don't need you."

"What makes you think that?"

Blaze growled in frustration and simply turned away from him and his goofy antics. Sensing that she was more than just upset, Silver lowered the chair next to her with a thud and rested his hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong?"

She glanced at him. "What's wrong?" she repeated. "What's wrong is that I don't want to see you go into another coma. Or worse!"

Silver was quite taken aback by her sudden outburst. Hovering over it her other side to face her, he looked into her eyes. "Well I'll do my best to take them down before they take me down," he answered.

Blaze wiped away a stray tear and muttered, "Naive idiot." before leaning forward and hugging him. Once again, Silver stiffened up and his heart went into overdrive, but he slowly returned it, wrapping his arms around the princess' waist.

"Don't worry," he whispered.

"Like I have a choice when it comes to you," Blaze replied. Little did Silver know that her heart was beating just as fast as his. Not only that, but her palms grew increasingly sweaty and her entire body felt like a pile of mush in his embrace.

* * *

Tails next destination, after leaving Blaze and Silver, was the nearest room down the hanger from them. Peering inside, he saw Knuckles clumsily trying to redress a wound on one of Rouge's wings. Once again clearing his throat to alert his presence, Tails delivered the same message he had given to the other pair.

"We'll be ready ta go," Rouge answered. "If Knuckles can do somethin' without screwin' up for once."

"Hey, I'm doing the best I can Batgirl!" he argued, wrapping the bandages a bit too angrily. Rouge hissed in pain and Tails took that as a cue to leave them.

"Careful!" she shouted. "Do you know what you're doin'?"

"Of course!" Knuckles responded, taking more care to make sure the dressing was tight, but that it did not cause any pain. "I do know some things, believe it or not."

"Ya don't know I like you, ya dunce," Rouge muttered with her mouth clenched firmly in pain.

"What was that?"

"I said 'Just be more careful back there for once'," she lied, mentally berating herself for her earlier comment. Knuckles was unsatisfied with her answer and knew she was lying to him. But he dropped the issue and continued to attend to the wound that was slowly healing.

* * *

Sonic tapped his foot impatiently against the hard floor. He was tense, and anyone who knew him could understand why. He was waiting for Tails to finish fixing the plane and he had to wait in a small, cramped room in the hanger, similar to all the other rooms. To top it off, he was kept company by Amy.

The girl sat in one of the chairs, holding her head in her hands. They both felt the irritation of boredom and nervousness creeping on. And to Amy, Sonic's foot was doing nothing to alleviate the problem.

"I'm sure he'll be done soon," Amy told him, hoping to get Sonic to sit down and stop.

Sonic grunted in agreement. "Yeah. I just wanna get up there soon."

"We will."

However, unbeknownst to Amy, Sonic's foot was also trying to help jog his courage into speaking up and finishing what he had wanted to say earlier. Ever since they had been in the room, it was a constant internal struggle between the two opposing sides.

"This isn't the time!" one would say. "Ya need ta focus!"

"There might not be another time!" the other shot back. "Besides, if ya tell her now, then ya _can_ focus!"

Sonic had to agree that the second voice was beginning to make much more sense the more he listened. He glanced over at Amy, who had taken to tracing circles into the plastic table, and sighed. Pushing off of the wall he had been leaning against, Sonic grabbed a chair and sat across from her.

"Ames?"

Amy's head raised. Her eyes were curious and concerned, knowing that there was something troubling him. "Yes?" she answered.

"About earlier...Or, what I mean ta say is..." Sonic tried to go on, but felt himself unable to. His tongue was swelling in his throat and attaching itself to the dry roof of his mouth. He shook his head frustration and took a moment to ready himself, postponing continuing for as long as possible.

All the while, Amy sat silently. She simply watched him, knowing that whatever it was, it was hard for him to say. And she did not want to add to the difficulty of it, so she waited for him to go on. Sonic was immensely pleased and thanked her in his mind for that.

"Look, I'm not sure how ta say this. So I'm just gonna come right out with it." Sonic took one more deep breath. "Amy, I lov-"

"Ahem!"

Both their heads spun to the strange sound, finding Tails staring sheepishly at them from their entrance. The hedgehogs' minds both screamed at him mentally. "Now? NOW?"

"Hey. Just thought I should let you guys know I'm finished," Tails said. He noted the disappointment adorning Amy's face and the irritation on Sonic's. "I didn't interrupt anything, did I?"

Sonic exhaled loudly, doing nothing to convince Tails that he had not. "No, ya didn't bud. We'll be there in a minute."

Tails, seeing right through the lie, nodded sadly and quickly left, his namesakes dragging behind him. Sonic turned back to Amy, who watched him expectantly. "What were you saying?" she prodded, trying to initiate his confession again.

"I..." but Sonic had lost it. Again. "I was gonna say I'd love ta go get some chilidogs with ya after all this is done."

"Oh." Amy looked down at her lap and smiled sadly. "I'd like that too."

Sonic stood up and reached for her hand. "C'mon. We should get going."

Amy nodded in agreement and laid her hand in Sonic's, letting the hero pull her to her feet. He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze as they both exited the room and made their way to the plane.

**A/N:** Hope you enjoyed that chapter! We'll-zzzzzzz.

**Sword:** No! We need more tea!

**Pen:** There is no more.

**Sword:** Then how will this continue?

**Pen:** I do not care.

**Sword:** Well to everyone out there: comments, critiques, or praise? Then let us know. C'mon Pen! We're off to get tea!

**Pen:** Let me go! I am not going anywhere!


	15. Chapter 15: If All Else Fails

**A/N: **Yes it has been a while since we've updated the story. No thanks to Pen.

**Pen:** You ungrateful son-

But we're here to bring you a new chapter!...Where's Sword?

**Pen:** She said something about building her own Tornado.

Ah ok...Wait, what? *runs off to find Sword*

**Pen:**...You people know already. The author owns none of the material here, save for Gauge and the plot. Now go read this insipid nonsense.

**Chapter 15- If All Else Fails, Blow Them Up**

"Everyone ready?" Tails asked from the cockpit of the Tornado. Sonic and Knuckles both held onto the wings of the plane while Amy sat in the seat behind Tails, at Sonic's insistence. Rouge, Silver, and Blaze hovered beside the plane, opting to use their gifts of flight instead.

Sonic gave a thumbs up, followed by a nod from Knuckles, and similar gestures from the rest. Tails, after finishing his pre-flight check, started the Tornado and signaled to the G.U.N. soldiers below to open the hanger.

As the grunts followed the order, Kelvin, along with Hamill supported by two soldiers, walked to the Tornado. "Remember: our forces be right behind you after your initial attack!" Kelvin shouted over the sound of the propeller.

"Got it!" Tails answered. He pushed the handle forward to the open hanger doors. Sonic and Knuckles tightened their hold while Silver and Blaze followed in silence.

"Good luck!" Hamill saluted.

Rouge flew closer to Knuckles and nudged his side. "Don't fall off Knuckie," she said. He growled menacingly to which she laughed and flew back to her original position. Sonic, hearing what the bat had said, quickly eyed Amy to make sure she was still safely seated in the plane.

As the plane ascended, the blue hedgehog waved and got everyone's attention. "Listen! When we get there, Tails is gonna drop off me and Ames on the top and Knuckles elsewhere. Blaze," he pointed to the cat, "you and Silver take care of the outside! Rouge, you find Shadow and Gauge!"

"What will we do?" Knuckles asked, the wind tearing up his eyes.

"You can sense the emeralds! You find them and me and Ames will go for Nega!" Sonic answered.

"I gave you each a small watch," Tails piped up, "that should let us keep in contact. When you've done your part, help Sonic with Nega. Remember, we have to stop him before he fires the cannon again!" Everyone showed him some sign that they understood. Tails smiled as the looming fleet of airships came into focus.

Tails, anticipating an attack, brought the plane underneath the clouds in an attempt to mask their presence from the ships for a while longer. He readied his ship's weapons and prepared for a tough fight.

* * *

"Urgh!" Shadow grunted. Gauge had banked the drone hard to the left to avoid one of the Reapers chasing them. It nearly sliced off one of Shadow's oddly-shaped quills in it's attack.

"You okay?" Gauge asked, dodging yet another blast from the other robots bringing up the rear of their pursuers.

"Perfect!" Shadow replied, holding his largest wound. "Why the hell don't you blast some of these damn things?"

"They're too fast for me!" Gauge answered. He pushed their ride to go faster, dodging and ducking security forces and turrets set up at various checkpoints in the hallway, locking onto and firing at their target. All the while, he kept an eye out for any sign of the emeralds.

"A lot of use you are," Shadow mumbled as his eyelids grew heavy. His vision was blurring so that the entire hall was a mass of red and white, with a large blob of yellow in the middle. He knew he would not last much longer without medical attention. "Can you find the infirmary?" he slurred out.

His companion took notice of the almost drunken speech and diverted away from their present course. He scanned the halls, looking for a room that looked like it would hold medical supplies. "You sure there will be one on this ship?"

Shadow nodded, shaking his head and trying to keep conscious. "If Nega is anything like Eggman, he'll have more medical supplies for himself than repair parts for his machines." He looked behind them to see that the robots were still following them, but their number was fewer than before. "I must be worse off than I thought. I think there's fewer of them."

Gauge glanced back briefly and saw that Shadow was indeed right. "No you're spot on," he said, "but why did they leave?" He turned back around to see a group of robots standing at the end of the hall, trapping them. One of the flying drones zoomed toward the pair and Gauge just barely managed to avoid it.

"Maybe you should keep your eyes in the front," Shadow growled. "I'll take care of this." He pulled out his Chaos Emerald and summoned what remained of his strength. He took aim and fired off several spears, each missing and instead of striking the robots, blew holes into the ship, forcing the air to be sucked out and taking a couple of smaller drones. He collapsed onto Gauge's back and let his vision fade to black.

Gauge, feeling the sudden increase of weight on his back from an unconscious Shadow, stopped the drone in mid-flight. The enemies chasing them had caught up and circled the pair, along with the ones that had been at the other end of the hall. Gauge pulled out a lead pipe and waved it around threateningly. "C'mon you piles of scrap!" he shouted, shaking and swinging it close at one of the Reapers. "Let's see you try it! I'll zap all of you!"

The Reaper looked at one of his companions, tilting his head in a curious pose. The hedgehog smiled, believing that he might have actually scared them. This hope was quickly dashed though when the Reaper lifted one of it's scythes and sliced neatly through the pipe.

Gauge held the pipe up to his face to examine it and smiled sheepishly. "Uh, did I say 'piles of scrap'? I, er, meant," he stuttered and began to trail off as the circle enclosed, growing smaller and smaller. He gulped, and held up his hand, hoping to at least take one robot out.

He never was able to fire off any electricity. At that moment, another hole exploded in the wall of the hall, causing the air inside to once again immediately rush out, bringing several robots with it. Through the new opening, Rouge, Silver, and Blaze entered. The bat agent was quick to dispense with the remaining flying enemies courtesy of a few kicks, taking them by surprise. The stunned Reapers were swept away by Silver's telekinesis into the hole.

" 'Bout time we found you two," Rouge said, landing on her feet. She looked at Gauge, who was still clinging to the drone, and chuckled. "Y'know, hugging your enemies ta death doesn't exactly work."

"Ha, ha," Gauge sarcastically laughed. "No time to explain this. We were trying to find the emeralds and Shadow 's hurt." He climbed off the ride and carried Shadow to Rouge as the drone crashed to the floor.

The bat ran over to Shadow while Silver and Blaze took this as the opportunity to get back to their part of the plan. "Just call if you need us," the princess told them as they flew back outside.

Gauge laid the hedgehog on the ground while Rouge examined him, a look of worry crossing her face. "Was he like this when ya found him?"

"Pretty much."

Shadow stirred slightly, his raspy breathing came out in staccato bursts. "We have ta find the emeralds." Rouge told Gauge, her evident worry disappearing a little from seeing that Shadow was still holding on to life. "They can help."

"Okay, but how?" Gauge asked, helping the bat pick up Shadow to share the load between them.

"We got a treasure hunter and someone who can't live without his precious emerald," Rouge answered coyly.

"I heard that," Knuckles' vain threat came from the hole as he glided in. He waved at Tails' plane outside before joining the group. "And I think you meant a kleptomaniac and a guardian."

"Whatever you say Knuckie. Let's go."

* * *

"Ready?" Sonic asked once Amy and him had landed on the flagship. Tails flew off overhead, several planes following him. He dodged and let loose a few bombs from the back of the Tornado, effectively taking them out. He turned back around and waved to Sonic and Amy before moving on to take out more enemies and defenses on the ship.

"Yeah," Amy answered, waving back to Tails. She summoned her trusty hammer and followed Sonic, who created a hole in the ship's exterior door with a homing attack. They went into it to find themselves in one of the metallic hallways.

Sonic took a few seconds to study the hallway before pointing down one corridor and telling Amy to follow him. "Looks like it's this way!" he said, running ahead of her, but slow enough so that she could keep pace.

During their run, the ship began to rock back and forth violently. First swinging the hedgehogs to one side and then the other, making it difficult for them to control their footing. Amy yelped as the force threw her toward the wall, but Sonic wrapped an arm around her waist to prevent the impact. The continued rocking though made him trip and he fell down, slamming into the ground while keeping Amy safe from harm.

Once the ship returned to it's normal position, both of them stood up and looked around. "What was that?" Amy wondered.

"I dunno," Sonic replied. "Maybe G.U.N. is here."

"Then we don't have much time!" Amy started to run again, beckoning the blue hedgehog to follow her. He caught up to his companion and they ran in silence for a few moments before she spoke up again. "Thanks for saving me."

He smiled, sped up, and turned around so he was running backwards in front of her. "Hey ya don't have ta worry about fallin' or anything. I'll always be there ta catch ya."

She visually blushed and hoped he did not notice, but Sonic had already righted himself and turned around. Little did Amy know that his face was colored red as well. They traveled the rest of the way in silence, dispatching the few enemies they came across on their way to the bridge.

* * *

"Curse you useless machines!" Nega thundered, kicking one of his minions in the window of the bridge, resulting in a splintering crack to form in it. He turned back to the security camera feeds showing on his monitors in front of him. On one, he had witnessed the rescue of Shadow and Gauge and on another he had seen Sonic and Amy enter his ship. One camera showed footage from outside, mainly Silver and Blaze ripping apart and shredding the ship and it's defenses for G.U.N. to attack it safely.

"What's the status of the cannon?" Nega demanded of one of the drones.

"Sixty-eight percent sir!" it squeaked, afraid it would be the next victim of Nega's boot.

The doctor growled and fell back in his chair, musing over his possible options. "The cannon wouldn't do much damage at this point," he muttered. "But I've run out of time." He racked his brilliant mind for some solution when his eyes trailed back to the monitor that displayed Rouge and Gauge carrying Shadow.

"That's it!" Nega stood up with a cry. "That hedgehog carries some of the Chaos energy. If I can rework the cannon, I can possibly channel it through him! But those machines need to catch him." He turned on a microphone attached to the side of the monitors, broadcasting his voice to all his robots. "Catch the yellow-striped hedgehog you fools! And the pink one as well just for good measure!"

Nega sat back down and swiveled around in his seat, stroking his aging mustache. "Even if those bumbling piles of metal fail to capture the yellow one, I can hold Amy hostage to keep Sonic at bay." He turned back around and typed some commands on his keyboard.

On the screens, the footage cut off and a countdown clock displayed instead. The reflection of it showed thirty minutes in Nega's glasses and began to decrease. "But just to cover myself if all else fails," Nega chuckled, locking down all the exits from anywhere but his hanger, "they can all go down with the ship." At this point, he was laughing maniacally as the countdown of destruction rapidly kept going, beeping with every second that passed. The doctor stood up again, still chortling to himself, as he left the bridge to ready his escape vehicle should his robots fail him.

**A/N:** And that's all for this chapter! Hope you liked it! Have you found Sword yet Pen?

**Pen:** Yes...In a way.

What do you-

**Sword:** Yee-haw! *flies plane overhead and crashes it into the audience* Whoo! Again! Again! *runs to get another plane*

Stop her! *runs after Sword*

**Pen:** *sighs* And once again I am left with the bumbling masses. If you liked the story, I do not care. If you want to critique the author, be my guest. And for those of you on fire or in pain, exit the building and call your own damn ambulances.


	16. Chapter 16: So Much For The Undefeatable

**A/N:** Ok, so do you got it?

**Sword:** Yeah. No more building planes.

**Pen:** Or?

**Sword:** Or big machines

**Pen:** I still fear for our lives though.

**Sword:** Hey! The audience is back! As usual, we don't own any of the characters except Gauge. All the others belong to Sega.

So please enjoy the next chapter.

**Chapter 16- So Much For The Undefeatable**

Knuckles held up his fist, signalling for the group to hold still. They had reached a fork in the road and the guardian was trying to determine which way they should go. So far, they had not run into anymore guards since the fiasco that Gauge and Shadow had gotten into. But they all knew that something was wrong, that it was too quiet and still. So everyone stayed quiet and silently followed Knuckles, who led the way, sensing the emeralds were nearby.

The echidna beckoned for Rouge to come to him, leaving Gauge to hoist Shadow up on his own. Knuckles pointed down the left gray corridor and she nodded in understanding. The guardian headed over to Gauge and helped him carry the unconscious body of their friend while Rouge led the group.

"What's going on?" Gauge whispered, but was promptly shushed by Knuckles. That quietened his mouth, but not his nerves. Everyone was on edge after the ship's tumultuous shaking from outside attacks. They had surmised it to be G.U.N.'s troops, meaning that they did not have much time left. And what was an even bigger worry is what Nega would do if they did not find the emeralds as quickly as possible.

But from the looks of Knuckles and Rouge, and from her decreasing pace slowing down the group, they seemed to be nearing their intended location. The bat peeked out of a nearby corner and beheld two guards standing in front of a door. She pointed them out to Knuckles and Gauge before helping the echidna hold Shadow. She then held up her hand to the yellow hedgehog and pointed to the two robots.

He nodded in understanding and slid to the corner, attaching his body to it and standing ramrod stiff. He took careful aim and drained the drones of all their electricity. As they fell into a pile on the floor, the group quickly ran into the room the sentries had been protecting over and shut the door.

Inside were machines that reached far up to touch the ceiling, which hung even higher overhead. Their screens showed data on the cannon, how much time was left before it could fire, the status of it, and how well the parts were running. In the center of the metal floor was, what one could only guess, the top of the cannon itself. And on it's top base, placed it a clear cylinder, were the emeralds everyone had been so desperate to find.

"Interesting," Rouge said, slowly setting Shadow against a wall. "G.U.N. would love ta get their hands on this." She looked over at Knuckles to see that he was eyeing the case and trying to pry it off. After several failed attempts, he snarled at the glass tube and raised his glove to smash it. Rouge was quick to stop him, afraid he might set off an alarm, and pulled out a glass cutter. "This requires a woman's touch."

Knuckles grumbled under his breath as Rouge cut into the tube ever so carefully, making a perfect circle, which she removed. She reached inside and grabbed one of the emeralds and tossed it to the echidna. He held it aloft in his hands for a few moments, a bit in disbelief at how easy it had been, before smiling at Rouge.

"Intruder alert!" an alarm cried. Red lights flashed around the room and the door locked. The machines went into lock down and displayed the security breach as well. The voice kept repeating itself while the group scrambled to try and find a way out.

Knuckles, not content with being quiet and stealthy anymore now that their cover was blown, smashed the tube like he originally planned. He gathered up the emeralds and handed some to Gauge, who brought them to Shadow. The yellow hedgehog was about to hand the unconscious one the white emerald before Rouge stopped him. "Give him the green one. It's his after all."

"So why was he using another one earlier?" Gauge questioned. He still listened to her advice and placed the green Chaos Emerald into Shadow's limp hand. Though he was a bit unsure if it was even the right one since everything was coated in blood red lights.

"Eggman stole it a while ago. So he's been using another one," she explained while crossing her fingers in anticipation of her friend waking up.

But time was not on the heroes' side. A dull knock was heard at the locked door, followed by a slam that caused part of the steel door to cave into the room. A few more similar slams were made followed by a blade slicing through the failing entrance right down the middle.

"We don't have any time to wait for him to wake up," Knuckles told them, gathering up the emeralds and instructing them to carry Shadow. "We have to go!"

A few more blades sliced into the room, driving Rouge crazy with the sound of them cutting metal and hurting her sensitive ears. Two of the blades entered into the door once more and pulled it apart, revealing a squadron of the Reapers. They filed in, starting to surround the group.

"Run for it!" Knuckles ordered, pushing the robots aside and darting out of the room with the lion's share of the emeralds. Rouge immediately followed suit, with Gauge trailing in tow, as they both ran with a couple of emeralds in one hand and Shadow's body in the other, whose hand still held the green jewel.

The yellow hedgehog was not quick enough for the Reapers. One of them immediately cut at him, forcing him to drop Shadow, which in turn caused Rouge to trip. She turned back to see Gauge surrounded by the robots. The hedgehog was in the center, holding his arm in pain and wincing as the drones enclosed on him. And there was nothing he could do to stop them.

* * *

(With Sonic and Amy)

"Should be almost," Sonic thought aloud as he rounded a corner before Amy did, "there. Woah!" He ground to halt and held out his hand to stop his pink companion. She gasped when she saw what had caused her blue hero to come to a standstill. In front of them stood Nega, with several Reapers waiting behind him.

"Oh this is my lucky day," Nega chortled, his voice dripping with malice to match his devious smile. "Just when I thought all was lost, look what drops in my lap."

"Funny. With your gut, I'm surprised you can still find your lap," Sonic countered. He spread his feet apart and held up his fists. His lips curled into his trademark smirk as he waited for Nega to make the first move.

At first, the doctor's face boiled maroon with annoyance and he nearly lashed out physically at the cocky hedgehog himself. But he collected his temper and snapped his fingers instead. "You will pay for your impudence, hedgehog." The Reapers behind him came to life and jumped between Sonic and Amy, holding the latter hostage in a sea of sharp blades.

Sonic moved to save her, but two Reapers stood in his way while the others dared him to try to attempt anything by moving their blades closer. One particular robot moved it's scythe close to Amy's neck, drawing a faint cut in her perfect skin in an effort to goad the hero into attacking.

The hedgehog spun around to turn his charge toward Nega instead, but the Reapers were just as fast and stood in his way again. Sonic snarled and stepped foward. "Let her go!"

"Certainly," Nega agreed. "Just as soon as you surrender yourself." He could see Sonic's indecisive eyes shift from the Reapers to Amy and back to himself. "Some swain you have here my dear," he said to his hostage as he noted Sonic's attempts to figure out some way out of their situation. "A fighter until the end. A very stubborn one at that who is trying my patience."

One of the Reapers lifted it mighty weapon to slice Amy before Sonic shouted out. "No! Stop!"

"Prepared to give up then?" Nega questioned. The hedgehog slowly nodded, putting his wrist to his lips and wiping away some stray spit from his yell, sending Nega into a fit of chuckles. "Oh this is splendid. Splendid! Nega Reapers! Escort them to the prison cell."

As the Reapers followed Nega's orders, the entire hallway began rolling around, along with the ship. Faint blasts were heard from different areas further down in other parts of the vessel, along with alarms and computerized voices informing everyone of destroyed equipment and raging fires. Then the hallway itself began to light up with various explosions, putting Sonic, Amy, and her captors on one side and the mad doctor and the rest of his deadly creations on the other.

Both hedgehogs looked up to see a circle of fire was burning through the roof. After a few more seconds, it had seared through the metal and was lifted away by an unearthly green glow. Once removed, they could see Silver and Blaze smiling down at them, with various G.U.N. and Nega ships fighting in the sky behind them. Silver hefted the large piece of metal with his telepathy, whirled it in a wind-up, and slammed it into the floor of the ship, letting the dangerous gyrating object slice the ship's floor in half. It went deeper still for a few more seconds, splitting the ship apart, along with the explosions, and putting a good distance between the two hedgehogs below and Nega.

"You!" Nega shouted, shaking his fist at the princess. "How did you find us? It's impossible!"

"Tracking locator on our communicators," Blaze explained. Nega was dumbstruck as he saw Sonic hold up the wrist he had pretended to just clean his mouth off with. The blue hedgehog pointed to a small accessory hidden in his fur that had the appearance of a watch.

"Well played," Nega murmured, taking a step back from the crevice that was slowly ripping the hall, and the ship, in half. "Well I still have my bomb set to go off. So I suppose you'll have to contend with that." He kept backing up slowly, while Sonic crouched into a running position, ready to give chase. "Reapers! Kill them!"

"No!" Sonic turned around and immediately homing attacked a few of the Reapers holding Amy. He grabbed her and rushed her off to the side. Blaze and Silver joined in, quickly double teaming the rest as the hedgehog levitated the robots and Blaze set them on fire.

"Hey Nega!" Blaze called. "Hot potato! Catch!" Silver caught on to her idea and began throwing the burning Reapers all around the doctor. He ducked and dodged all of them as they hit the roof and walls. After all the droids had been thrown, Nega still stood there, a little more shakily than before, but still alive and well.

"Ha!" he laughed. "You cannot defeat me!" he turned around, continuing his taunt and unaware of the roof above him. "I am the brilliant, all-powerful Dr. Nega!" The cry echoed throughout the hall, causing whatever was holding the roof up to finally give way. All the metal and beams and debris came crashing down on of the doctor's side of the ship. The dust and smoke shrouded the others' view of him while the cave-in covered up his terrified screams.

Once it had settled, Silver hovered over to the pile. He sneezed at the dust still swirling around it, but smiled nonetheless. "So much for the all-powerful Nega," he teased.

Blaze's mouth laced a smirk at him before turning her attention to Sonic and Amy, who were huddled off to the side. He was examining the cut in her neck while she kept insisting that she was fine. Sonic still kept checking her to make sure she had not suffered any other injury.

"Really Sonic, I'm fine," she said, trying to wiggle out of his grasp.

He finally let her go, satisfied she guessed, and nodded. "If ya say so Ames. Just don't want ya gettin' hurt."

"I wasn't," she affirmed, then quietly added, "thanks to you." She leaned a bit closer to his cheek, her lips puckering out a bit. And Sonic, his own heart racing fast to flush his face, did not move. Amy took that as an invitation and moved in closer.

Blaze cleared her throat to call their attention to the situation at hand. "We have to go now," she informed them, pointing to the split in the ship. "This thing is not going to stay up much longer. It will crash into the city."

Sonic sighed and helped Amy up. As they walked over to Blaze and Silver, a thought suddenly struck him, followed by his own palm. "The bomb!"

"Bomb?" the princess and her bodyguard questioned.

"Nega said he set a bomb on this ship!" Sonic quickly explained. He spun around and ran down the hallway, still pulling Amy along with him. Blaze and Silver flew after them. "We gotta stop it! If it lands in the city..."

"It will destroy it!" Amy finished.

Sonic nodded in agreement and called Tails on his watch. He was able to relay the information, despite the constant explosions in the background on the fox's end, and told him to meet the group at the bridge of the ship. "Tails will be able to stop it," Sonic said, more to himself than the rest of the group. "I'm sure of it."

* * *

(With Knuckles, Rouge, and Gauge)

Rouge could only watch as the Reapers lifted their scythes, prepared to cut down Gauge if he tried to resist. And so far he was, but there was no way out of his predicament. The bat was afraid if she tried to help him, the Reapers would either kill the hedgehog or go after the emeralds. Knuckles had come racing back to the room, after discovering that he had been running all alone in the hallway, and had tried to help. But the Reapers held their scythes closer to Gauge, forcing the guardian to back off.

"What do we do?" Knuckles whispered, hoping Rouge had an idea. The thief shrugged and shook her head.

"You let me handle it," a voice said. They both turned around to see Shadow wobbly standing up. The light from his green Chaos Emerald was coating his body in it's glow. His previous wounds were closing on their own, leaving only dried blood as any evidence that he had been injured to begin with.

He walked between the stunned bat and echidna, held up the emerald, and uttered, "Chaos Control!" In the next few seconds, the Reapers holding Gauge were ripped apart, either by their own blades being torn from their sockets and used against them or from the spines of the hedgehog spinning through them. When the massacre ended, Shadow was the only one left standing, holding a Reaper head.

"You cannot stop Nega," it said in a monotone voice.

"Watch me," Shadow replied before throwing it down and stomping on it until it was crushed into tiny fragments. He turned around and helped Gauge up. "You're alright," he stated more than asked.

"Yeah," Gauge nodded. "My hero," he said, mock swooning under Shadow's chin, pressing his cheek against the tuft of fur on his savior's chest. The ebony hedgehog promptly socked him firmly in the nose. Gauge jumped back and howled in pain. "Ow, ow, ow, ow!"

"Quit whining. I didn't hit that hard," Shadow said. "So what now?"

"We should meet up with Sonic and the other," Rouge answered.

"Got that right," Knuckles added. "I just got off with Tails," he pointed to the watch communicator, "and he says there's a bomb on the bridge. And the ship is heading for the city!"

Shadow immediately took off the way Knuckles had been running earlier. His grip on the green emerald tightened as he ran faster. The other three quickly gathered up the remaining emeralds and followed after the hedgehog.

**A/N: **Since everyone complained about the scene changes, this was the best solution I could think of besides putting **SCENE CHANGE**. If anyone has a better idea, let us know. I also originally wanted some sort of fight with Nega, but this has probably gone on a bit longer than I anticipated already.

**Sword:** Hey! I found an old friend!

**Pen: **Who?

_**It's me! Will Sonic and co. save the city in time? Will Sonic and Amy ever be able to kiss?**_

Ooooh no. Not you! Out, out! So, comments, critiques, or whatever, just let us know.


	17. Chapter 17: Holey Ship!

**A/N:** Man it's been over a year. But we're finally at the end. This will be the last chapter.

**Sword:** Aw.

But there will be an epilogue. Anyway, once again, all characters belong to Sega except Gauge. He belongs to me. And the lyrics are originally from Ya Kid K, but I changed them for the story. Same tune, different lyrics so I guess they're kind of mine as well. Also I found out what the problem with the scene jumps was. My separation lines weren't transferring over to the site, so we've started using the lines provided by the site. We've gone back and done this with all our stories so hopefully everyone won't be confused now.

**Sword:** *plays sad violin music* We're at the end.

**Pen:** *smashes violin* Shut up. This is a good thing.

Enjoy.

**Chapter 17- Holey Ship!**

Sonic, Amy, and Tails were on the scene of the bridge a few minutes before Shadow's group arrived. When the ebony hedgehog's party did reach the front of the ship, they could see that the two-tailed fox was frantically fiddling with various controls and inputting several commands into the central computers. The robots had long since left, either abandoning the falling wreck or having tried to stave off the intruders.

"Tell us you got good news," Knuckles said as he laid the emeralds down in a chair.

"Well G.U.N. was able to catch and haul off the other half of the ship," Tails informed them. He frowned at the computer's screen when it read error to yet another command. "So that piece won't hit the city."

"But this one will?" Shadow asked.

He nodded. "Yeah. And if that happens, the bomb will go off soon afterwards, destroying more than what the crash will."

The others glanced outside and saw the city's skyline rising and nearing a parallel space with the angled ship. From their current trajectory, the vessel would be in the city in several minutes- or ten according to Tails- and slam into the city's buildings afterwards.

Tails went on to inform them that he had already tried steering it away from it's destination, but that had proved impossible to do. And the bomb would require more time than they had to disarm. And as any of them could see, time was not on their side.

"You must have a back-up plan bro," Sonic said, standing next to Tails' and crossing his arms. "Isn't there something we can do?"

The fox rubbed his chin in thought and picked up one of the emeralds, tossing it to Sonic. "I think I do. If you and Shadow were to use the emeralds and bash through the ship at different points, Silver and Blaze could probably burn up or discard the rest. And try to contain the blast."

"Sounds like a plan," Sonic smiled.

A minute later, the group had radioed their flying friends and explained the situation. Silver and Blaze agreed immediately and prepared themselves on the outside while Tails and the others left Sonic and Shadow behind in the bridge. They would use the collected jewels there while the rest would take the Tornado and help in any way from the outside. Once they had left the two hedgehogs alone, the blue one turned to his counterpart and tossed one of the Sol Emeralds up and down. "Just like old times huh?"

"Let's just do this," Shadow replied, his terse and grumpy manner ever present even as something as monumental as possible annihilation stared them in the face. He stood on one side of the emeralds and Sonic took position on the other. Just as they prepared to draw on the energy from the sparkling gems, a distant blast rocked the ship, causing some of the emeralds to slide around while the hedgehogs steadied themselves.

"We better do this quick," Sonic said.

* * *

In the corridors, Tails and the others felt the far off explosion as well. Figuring that they had less time than they thought, they sped up, hoofing it quickly to the hanger where Tails had parked the Tornado.

They soon arrived at the hanger, but were impeded by a very large problem. While the group had been on the bridge attempting to shut down the bomb or control the flagship, G.U.N. had taken it upon themselves to destroy what they could of the aircraft time bomb. And one of the places hit had been the roof of the hanger, directly over the fox's blue plane, which was buried beneath metal roof tiles and large banisters. The exit had also been effectively cut off while the ships outside kept firing sporadic bullets into the ceiling, creating pinpoint size holes.

"Hurry!" Tails cried, signaling the group to help remove the blockage. They raced over and immediately began heaving the mountains of metal and debris off of it. Spurring them to work faster was the sound of their friends, who had already started to tear apart the ship with their attacks and were slowly nearing them. Knuckles, being the strongest, lifted off most of the rubble while Tails climbed inside and tried to fire up the engines.

"It's no good," he said, flipping the start switch on and off and adjusting all the gears to their proper places over and over. "The engine must be damaged!"

"Let me help with that," Gauge offered. He hopped on top of the plane and zapped it, careful to not shock any of the people already inside. "Try it now."

Tails complied and the engine sputtered to life. Everyone cheered as Tails strapped himself in and instructed everyone else to the same. The giant craft lifted off the ground, shaking what little debris was left loose from it's scratched exterior, and zoomed toward the ceiling.

"Hang on!" Tails yelled above the roaring propeller. He tilted the machine up, yawing it almost vertically, and fired off several rounds of rockets into the ceiling. A series of thunderous explosions deafened them all as they kept climbing higher. The pilot silently begged and pleaded not to hit anything since the dust of the blasts covered up his vision.

* * *

Kelvin nervously paced back and forth in the command post, pausing every minute to listen to the comm chatter coming from the operators' posts inside the tent. After hearing nothing about any activity other than G.U.N.'s ships pounding the outside with bullets and missiles, he would resume his mission to wear a hole into the floor. Hamill sat in a chair, his injuries attended to, and resting his chin on a stainless steel cane. He followed his young lieutenant back and forth and finally spoke up. "Take a seat," he suggested.

The other shook his head and listened again to the comm channels. "We should've heard something by now. Our planes are pounding the living hell out of it and there's no word from the others. Not to mention the flagship is about to crash into the city." He wrung his hands, squeezing out what remaining sweat there was in them.

"Take a seat," Hamill repeated, although it was more of an order than an offer this time. The younger followed the request and pulled one of the folding chairs close to his superior and collapsed in it. He still shook though, his foot tapping out the stores of apprehension built up inside. Hamill chuckled and rested a hand on Kelvin's shoulder. "They'll stop him. You'll see."

"I hope you're right," Kelvin said. He sat there, as patiently as possible, for the next few minutes, his eyes flicking back and forth from each operator station. Unable to sit still any longer, he began pacing again with no further objections from Hamill.

"Sir! I have something!" one of the operators cried, swiveling in his chair to beckon the two over. Kelvin immediately grabbed the headset that the man handed to him and jammed it on.

"Hello? Hello? This is Lieutenant Kelvin," he introduced himself.

"Sir!" the voice on the line crackled from static and interference from the distance and weapons firing in the background. "This is Bravo Team Leader! We have a sighting of agent Rouge in a blue plane! It just shot out from the ceiling of Nega's ship!"

Hamill grinned broadly when his lieutenant relayed the information. The rest of the soldiers in the tent cheered quickly, but hushed themselves to let Kelvin finish speaking to the pilot. "Are all of them in the plane?"

There was a pause on the other line for a few brief seconds before the man replied. "Negative. Sonic and agent Shadow are not aboard the plane. I repeat, that is a negative. We have- Wait a minute!" By this time, Kelvin had unplugged the headset, letting the entire room listen with bated breath to what was happening overhead. "Holy shit! What the hell is that?" the pilot exclaimed. "Bravo one, move it! It's gonna clip your wing!"

Hamill caught Kelvin's eye, both of them wondering the same thing. Was it a new weapon that Nega had waited until now to dole out upon them? They could only try to guess from the pieces of radio communication that they were able to pick up.

"Hot damn! They got 'em!" the pilot yelled. "This is Bravo Team Leader! We have sighting of Sonic and agent Shadow. They're tearing Nega's ship apart!"

An ever louder huzzah followed the previous one. Everyone clapped each other on the back or danced in ridiculous fashion as their way of celebrating. Hamill congratulated the people around him on a job well done. Kelvin sighed in relief and pressed a button on the console to speak back to the pilot. "Roger that. You give them whatever support they need."

"Yes sir!"

* * *

"Coming your way Blaze!"

The floating cat turned to see a large hunk of metal from the deteriorating flagship tumbling toward her. She summoned all her might and ejected a blast of flames into the piece, disintegrating it into a pile of burnt ash and watched it fall softly down to the ground. All around the two, G.U.N. ships and Nega's flying robots were duking it out, with both sides taking out an equal amount. G.U.N.'s forces had the skill, but Nega had built enough drones that the soldiers could be overwhelmed if they were not careful.

"Nice one," Silver commented. He caught two pieces with a telekinetic glow and used them to smash several robots as if using a pair of oversized cymbals. Then he threw them into the ship, damaging it further. It was still heading down, but there were noticeable holes in every part of it. And the two speeding hedgehogs zipping in and out of it were plugging it with more openings every second. However, the descending fortress was nearing the city and was getting far too close for comfort.

A loud propeller buzzed nearby the princess and her loyal bodyguard. They turned to see the Tornado, with Tails in the cockpit waving to them. He flew in closer to them and shouted over the rushing wind and gunfire. "How you guys holding up?"

"Better than Nega's ship," Blaze pointed out. "Though they may not make it."

"They will," Tails reassured them. But even Blaze could sense that the little fox was worried.

However, where they were at there was no time to dwell on their dread if they failed. They had a mission. And the pyrokinesis girl could see several enemies diving straight for the blue plane. "Tails! Up above!"

He glanced up and ordered Gauge to zap them before they could get in range to fire. In the meantime, Tails would help Blaze and Silver destroy pieces of the ship. The yellow hedgehog mock saluted and climbed out slowly and carefully onto the wing. The princess could hear him swearing under his breath about the height and to "not look down" the whole time.

He eventually stood unsteadily on the edge of the wing and took aim. He managed to hit a couple before the jolt from the Tornado's guns nearly knocked him off. Gauge clung to the aircraft like it was his security blanket and yelled at the pilot. "Keep it steady, would you?"

Blaze and Silver kept pounding away at the different pieces while the enemies closed in and shot at Tails. One managed to nick Gauge's leg, causing him to become doubly mad. "Ok, you little bastards. Come get it." He grabbed a lead pipe rolling around on the wing and proceeded to swing it like a bat, knocking the robots off into the sky with the force of a baseball player hitting a home run. "Grand slam!" The others he kept frying from a distance, making sure that the Tornado was not in anymore danger.

Tails leaned out of his seat to examine the carnage below. The G.U.N. forces were slowly starting to beat back all the robots, but the ship was getting far too close to the city. They needed to destroy it now. He pressed a button on his ship and called for Sonic. "What's up bro?" the cocky voice came through the plane's speakers.

"Sonic, we have to finish the ship off now. I got an idea." He signaled Blaze and Silver over to the Tornado while Knuckles and Amy joined Gauge on the wings of the plane, taking out the robots zooming by. "You and Shadow hit it right down the middle. Then Blaze can burn one end and Silver can contain the other with his powers." The fox looked up at the two and asked, "You guys can handle it, right?"

Blaze glanced at the plummeting heap that barely resembled it's former design of a terror of the skies. It was lit up by fires all around it and the interior was either showing or blow away, leaving behind just the skeletal structure. But it was still large enough that it would strain Silver's and her powers. "We can try," she replied.

"Good enough." Tails turned back to the speakers. "Ok, do it now. We don't have anymore time."

"Gotcha," Sonic said, before the communicator cut to nothing but static.

Down below at Nega's ship, both of the glowing hedgehogs sped into view for the group. They halted in mid-air for a few moments before curling up and building speed. When they were moving fast enough that they were just two glowing orbs of light, they let loose and ripped through the ship with their power, shattering into two separate pieces.

Tails signaled to Blaze and Silver, who nodded and flew over to the two parts with the Tornado trailing behind. Blaze summoned a whirlwind of fire for her piece and consumed the metal with the inferno, slowly burning it away as it fell. Her hedgehog friend opted to use his psychic powers to trap his half in a luminescent bubble and lifted it high into the air.

Before he could throw it, the part exploded with the ship's bomb, breaking the barrier around it and knocking Silver into Blaze. Her fire faltered for a brief moment, but that was all it needed. The piece dropped faster, heading straight for the Station Square Park.

"No!" Tails cried, turning the ship to the falling debris. His passengers held onto whatever they could as their bodies nearly flew into the air. Free-falling near the plane were Blaze and Silver, having recovered from the blast, and aiming at the last slab of metal along with Tails. The fox achieved a lock-on with his missiles and fired every last one he had. At the same time, Blaze and her bodyguard gave their best shot with their remaining energy, forming a trifecta of lethal force with Tails' weapons. It collided with the debris, resulting in a large explosion that knocked the Tornado off to the side and sent the two flying heroes tumbling after it.

Tails quickly righted the plane, allowing the others to slip back into their seats. Gauge punched the air, shouting a ridiculous victory cry. "Yeah! We came, we saw, we kicked his ass!"

The rest could only smile and wave to Blaze and her companion, who flew closer to the plane. "Let's go find Sonic and Shadow!" Tails told them.

"No need," Silver answered. He pointed up above, out of their view. All the plane's occupants felt two loud thumps on the roof of the plane.

Amy leaned her head out, but immediately jumped back in surprise when a glowing gold face appeared with a cheeky grin. "Miss me?" he asked, his fur fading back to it's cobalt blue color.

On the other side, Shadow had hopped in next to Rouge. His shimmering hue was overtaken by jet black. He crossed his arms and watched Amy pull her blue paramour into the same seat as her. He then turned and glared at all the happy faces of the G.U.N. forces whooping and hollering over the victory.

"How about we go celebrate?" Rouge suggested. "I heard about this great place."

* * *

Hours later, when the sun had long since set and given way to the crescent moon, the dazzling city lights that covered the stars, and the general night life of Station Square, the heroes were released from G.U.N. They had returned to the base, where everyone was to be debriefed and Shadow and Rouge were to be given several days of leave. When they had left, Rouge had led them to a popular night spot in the middle of the city, where several of the troops had headed to as well. Going by the name "The Central", which was highlighted in bright neon red lights, it was completely packed with people from all over. Luckily, Sonic was well-recognized and that, combined with Rouge's wooing of the bouncer, gained them access to the club.

Inside the entire place was shrouded in darkness save for the dance floor, which was illuminated by it's ever changing, colored tiles and sat firmly in the middle of the club, earning the place's name. The wooden tables were either lit up by candles or small over-hanging lamps and were raised a few feet above the dance floor. The stage at the one side of the dancers on the multicolored floor was the only bright spot, showing an unknown band playing. And all around were men and women clad in tight outfits daring to go by the moniker of waiters and waitresses.

Rouge casually walked ahead of the group, leading them to a booth near the back while acting like she owned the club. Then again, since she did operate and control her own club, this surprised no one.

Once they had taken their seats and refused to order anything, Amy asked Sonic if he would like to dance. Taking a quick look at the people out there, and the complex moves they were pulling off, he declined, leaving Tails to take up the role instead as a friendly gesture. Amy accepted and they were off, while the rest of the group glared at Sonic, who pretended not to notice.

"Hey, maybe you could use these Rouge," Sonic said, picking up the candle and trying to change the subject.

Much to his relief, she took the bait and smiled. "Maybe. But I had something else in mind to get first." She watched one of the waiters pass by, flexing his arms for a table of women nearby. Knuckles grumbled low to himself, but the bat's excellent hearing picked it up. "Aw, is poor Knuckie jealous?"

Just then, one of the waitresses strode by, flashing the echidna a smile and winked at him. He blushed and quickly returned it with a grin of his own, much to Rouge's chagrin. She grabbed his arm, with the excuse of "Let's dance" to far remove him from the coquettish girl.

For a few minutes afterwards, the rest of the group sat in silence, save for Silver and Blaze, who whispered quietly to each other and stole glances at Gauge. Eventually, Silver called the yellow hedgehog away from the table to discuss something in private with the princess and him. This left an irritable Shadow, whose arms were permanently crossed as if glued to his chest, and a pondering Sonic, who drummed his fingers in time with the rataplaning of his heart when he would see Amy turn in his direction from the dance floor.

"What the hell are you doing?" Shadow finally broke the silence.

"Huh? Whaddya mean?"

"You know damn well what I mean," the ebony one continued. "Get out there now so we can put an end to this high school melodrama crap." He looked ready to kick Sonic out of the chair, so the blue hedgehog jumped up and headed for the dance floor.

Once he stepped down onto the dazzling rainbow display of colored panels on the dance floor, all the lights came on and the dancers clapped. While the band thanked everyone and made an announcement about a karaoke event starting, Sonic squeezed through the crowd to where Amy and Tails were last seen. He eventually found them near the stage, giving a hand to a new person stepping up to the microphone. As the person began to sing a slow song and the lights once again dimmed, the hedgehog tapped his friend on the shoulder. "May I cut in?"

Tails nodded eagerly and moved aside for him, bowing condescendingly and scurrying off before Sonic could do anything. Both hedgehogs stood there for a few seconds as the song progressed, shyly focusing their attention anywhere else but on each other. Finally, he took the initiative and held out his hand to her. She gently took it and pressed herself closer to him as their body temperatures skyrocketed from the amount of blood being pumped furiously throughout them.

They were silent, and a little stiff in dancing. Although it was more like they were spinning and barely moving their feet. "Thanks again," the pink hedgehog finally said, trying to start some sort of conversation.

"For what?"

"For saving us today," she reminded him. Sonic nodded and the reticence settled on them once more. It was several more seconds before Amy asked, "What were you trying to tell me earlier?"

"I was, er-" The hero scratched his head and surveyed the room, taking note of anything that could possibly interrupt him this time. "Maybe it would be better if I showed ya." He slowed them to a stop and removed his hands from hers to cup her face. Both their hearts beat to a rhythm not unlike a horse gallop, as if that is what resided in their chests and was trying to burst out to rush toward the other's and embrace it. Their faces were heated, either from the close proximity of the other inhabitants of the dance floor or their own nervousness. All they knew, or cared about, was what happened next.

Sonic's trembling lips connected with hers, melding perfectly together, sealing off the deep gulps of air they took. Neither dared open their mouth any further or attempt any other action for fear that the other might pull away or that the entire ordeal was some fantastic dream. And like any good dream, it all too soon came to an end as they pulled apart, savoring each other's taste.

The blue hedgehog kept his eyes closed a moment longer before squinting to see if anything had changed. Everyone around them was still focused on their dance partner, not noticing the out of place pair who had just shared something special.

Amy slowly opened her eyes, touching her fingers to her still quivering lips, letting the tingle from the kiss travel throughout her hand and to her heart. She looked away from her hands and at the now sheepish Sonic, who turned his eyes elsewhere. "Um, yeah," he coughed into his hand, trying to play it off as casually as a hug or birthday present for a friend. "That's what I wanted ta tell ya."

She immediately wrapped her arms around him and gave the blushing hedgehog a peck on the cheek. Sonic felt sweat dripping from every pore on his body, but he smiled all the same. As they leaned in to kiss again, the song ended and the lights came on once again. People cheered the next performer and when Sonic saw who it was, he quickly pointed it out to Amy.

Up on the stage, loosening the microphone from the stand and tapping it, was Gauge. He waved heartily to the crowd and pointed to Sonic and Amy, directing a spotlight on to them. "Let's give it up for the heroes who stopped Nega!" The dancers turned to them, cheering and clapping for the two. Excited shouts of "It's Sonic" rang throughout while the blue hedgehog waved to them.

"And we got a special song for them and the rest of the heroes!" Three more spotlights highlighted the rest of the saviors. Silver and Blaze were off to the side at a table, eyes wide like two deer caught in the headlights of oncoming traffic. Knuckles was trying to shield his face while Rouge was flirtatiously winking and blowing kisses to the aroused males. And finally, Shadow, who still resided at their original table alone, simply stared menacingly at the spotlight.

Gauge pointed at the band and began tapping his foot, cueing the bright lights to douse themselves. The musicians started up a tune that sounded like a mix of jazz and hip-hop while the yellow striped hedgehog shot off blasts of electricity from his fingertips to highlight different parts of the dancing crowd, mainly focusing on Sonic and Amy in the center.

"_**Tails and me are behind this**_," Gauge began, pointing out the fox who was working the lights off to the side of the stage. "_**Didn't want no one to miss.**_" He strutted around the raised platform while Sonic and Amy shrugged and danced with everyone else. "_**The chance to thank you, so all ya'll scream. For Sonic and his awesome team.**_"

The two hedgehogs paid little attention to the song as it continued and only watched one another, eyes locked together as Sonic tried in vain to match Amy's surprisingly good dancing skill. "_**Wanna know who they saved ya'll from? Nega, cause they're awesome!**_" A circle formed around the two and their friends and adoring fans cheered them on, despite the blue hero's failings at pulling off anything more complicated than a few criss-crosses of his legs. "_**They're totally awesome! And from whence did you came? They are our heroes! You all know their name!**_"

* * *

(1 month later)

"Done!" Tails expressed happily. wiping his forehead of the sweat and oil that covered his fur, turning it hard and sticky. He looked over his latest creation and nodded in satisfaction. It had been an entire month since the victory over Nega and everything had more or less returned to normal. G.U.N. had secured all the emeralds- except the red Sol Emerald, but they kept up a diligent search for it- and Tails had been able to quickly build the special cases to house the Chaos Emeralds. They balanced out the lost Chaos Energy so long as they were kept in the container. This way, a repeat of the fiasco with Nega would not be accidently repeated.

In fact, the machine that the young inventor so proudly beamed at sported one such box near the top, with the yellow Chaos Emerald nestled in the middle and suspended in the air inside the cube through metal rods and mechanical arms. The translucent sides allowed him to check if there were any failings with it at anytime.

The machine itself was in the design of what one would expect from an old science-fiction movie. Large and cylindrical, it had a sliding door on one side, with a little circular window to peer through. Connected to the rounded dome on the top and the flat bottom were a series of black wires, leading to various outlets and computers in Tails' workshop. Sporting a metallic gray color, it was positioned in the middle of the room, near the stairs that led up to the rest of the house and with his workbench and other half-finished inventions surrounding in an almost praising circle at it's magnificence.

Using a cloth to wipe off his gloves, Tails hollered up the stairs. "Okay! I'm done adjusting it!" Following the shout, Sonic bounded down to the workshop, with Amy close behind.

"Nice!" Sonic complimented as Amy stood beside him and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"Thanks," Tails replied, as he watched Knuckles, Cream, Cheese, Rouge, Silver, Blaze, and Gauge come down as well. "Too bad Shadow couldn't come to see them off."

"You know him," Rouge shrugged. "Always working. Looking for that Sol Emerald."

"Well, let's hurry up," Knuckles grunted, residing himself near the bottom step of the stairs. "I gotta get back to my island. So how does this thing work again?"

The fox stood in front of the machine and coughed into his hand. "Well, by using the power of the Chaos Emerald and it's container, once the person steps into it and I input the coordinates, it should send that person to the place I input." He turned to Silver and Blaze. "In your case, home."

"Good," Blaze said. She walked over and shook Tails' hand. "Thank you."

"It was nothing," he replied, smiling. He turned on the machine and walked over to the console on the side. "You guys ready?"

The princess glanced at Silver, who nodded, before catching Gauge's eye. The night of their celebration over Nega, she and the silver hedgehog had pulled him off to the side to offer him a deal. He could stay with them in their dimension and they would teach the yellow hedgehog how to control his electricity in exchange for helping them to defend Blaze's kingdom. Once they had pointed out that he would be more accepted by the general population, and live in a castle, Gauge had readily agreed. And even though he would miss everyone, he still said the same thing he had before. "Yeah. Ready to go."

It was not as though it was a permanent decision however. A few days prior, Tails had drawn up designs for the same machine for Blaze that could be powered by the Sol Emeralds and would allow them to visit one another, should the transported now work. She had tucked it neatly, along with the emeralds, into a blue knapsack slung around Silver's shoulders.

The transporting machine came alive with an ominous whir and Tails beckoned one of the three to step inside. The door slid open, awaiting it's first tester, which Blaze volunteered for. The inventor handed Blaze a small tracking device, instructing her to push it's red button when she arrived and it would signal the rest of them, letting them know that she had gone through safely. She climbed inside and the hatch snapped shut, locking her inside with a click. Tails pressed a large green button and the machine began vibrating. There was a bright flash inside and she disappeared.

"Did she make it?" Silver questioned, running over to Tails' console.

The fox tapped a few keys and a screen popped up, showing all the necessary data. "According to this, yes. But let's give it a moment." Several tense seconds passed by until a bright red signal blinked on and off on the display. "Looks like she made it."

"Then I'll go next," Silver said. He lifted the bag inside before crawling in himself. The door once again slid shut and after a dazzling white light, he too disappeared. Again, the entire room played the waiting game for a few moments until the red beacon lit up again, showing that the first two testers had made it safely home.

"Ready Gauge?" Tails asked. The yellow hedgehog nodded and took one last look around the room as he lifted his leg into the transporter. Cream was wiping away a tear, trying to not cry while Cheese floated around Gauge's head. Knuckles merely nodded while Rouge winked with a devious smile curling onto her face as always. Sonic and Amy, still in an embrace, both took one arm away from each other to bid him farewell.

"See ya later," Sonic said.

The yellow hedgehog chuckled and winked. "Don't go too crazy you two."

Sonic and his new paramour's faces flushed scarlet and they let their eyes roam about the room. Knuckles snickered behind them while Rouge waved Gauge off. "Don't worry. We'll keep an eye on them."

"Actually, I was talking to you two," he replied. He laughed at their gawking and flustered faces and stood fully in the machine while Tails closed it off. It started up, shaking the hedgehog's entire body around. And the next thing he knew, all he could see was a bright, pure light in front of him.

* * *

Three soft, but firm knocks drummed against the wooden door to Hamill's office. The captain, holding one of the cases Tails' had created that housed the white Chaos Emerald, set down his load on his pristine desk and invited the person in. The door opened to reveal Kelvin, still wearing his battle gear from a recent search mission, his helmet tucked underneath his arm and his weapons dangling from their secure holsters. "Ah Kelvin. Come in, come in. Shut the door would you?" Hamill seated himself at the desk, which held neatly arranged stacks of folders and a small lamp.

Kelvin did as was told and walked over to the captain, who offered him the leather seat across the desk from his own. The lieutenant sat down in it, admiring the comfort of it, and was level enough to read the plaque on the front of the Hamill's workstation. It read "The path to Hell is paved with good intentions. - Karl Marx" and was his superior's favorite quotes and guidelines.

"So how did the search go?" Hamill asked, closing an open folder and setting it on top of the stack of its brothers.

"Still no sign of the red Sol Emerald, sir," Kelvin reported, keeping his military manner intact. "It's possible that it may have been destroyed."

The captain nodded and clasped his hand together. "Possible. But we have to be sure."

"We'll keep searching for it then."

"Good man." Hamill reached for the white emerald's case and brought it closer under the lamp. "We can't afford to have these fall into the wrong hands again. We have to keep them locked up. Under lock and key so nobody can ever misuse their power again." He spun his chair around to gaze out the window at the beautiful, silent night sky and scooting the chair back away from the low bookshelf pressed against the wall underneath the paneled glass.

"Surely you're joking." Kelvin stood up, leaning on the desk. "Sir," he quickly added.

"No I am not," he answered, glancing back at his subordinate. "These objects are dangerous. Maybe someday, whenever Sonic needs them again, we might let him have them. But for now, each one stays in storage."

"And the Sol Emeralds?"

"Sent home with Princess Blaze," Hamill informed him. "She is the protector of them. I believe she is more capable than we are at defending them."

Kelvin walked around the desk so that he could stare the captain in the face. "But sir, think about the good that could come from the emeralds. With their power, we could advance our medical technology. Incurable diseases would be a thing of the past!" His hands began to take on a mind of their own, flying widely about in direct proportion to his growing enthusiasm over the possible uses. "We could power shields and defenses! They could even let us produce powerful weapons!"

"And it is thinking like that which has made me come to this decision," Hamill explained calmly. "How long would we be able to resist the temptation?" He shrugged his shoulders and faced Kelvin. "Oh sure at first we would use it for good. But how long before we began imposing control through them? How long before we became just like Nega?" When the lieutenant did not answer, he raised himself from his chair and patted the younger's shoulder. "It's for the best. We've already gotten the go-ahead from the president and Congress to split them up, all over the world." Squeezing the shoulder reassuringly, he smiled, his face weary, but sure that he had reached Kelvin. "You'll see."

The next moment, Hamill felt a pain in the pit of his gut. It was a stabbing sensation, not unlike a knife twisting around his insides while fire blazed in the immediate area around it. It worked its way from the pit of his stomach up to his heart while the blood, fluids, and any other liquids in his body rushed in the opposite direction, as if in an attempt to cool the burn the same way one would throw any and all water onto a roaring fire to put it out.

Feeling unsteady, he tightened his hold on Kelvin's shoulder. Both he and the lieutenant looked down to see the cause of concern. Held a bit shakily by the younger's hand was a black pistol that had been residing in one of his loose holsters. It's barrel was pressed tightly against an open wound in Hamill's stomach to the point that the tip was disappearing into it. It stemmed the flow of blood only by a little, but too much of it had already poured out onto Kelvin's hand and the black carpet.

Hamill staggered back, releasing the lieutenant's shoulder, and falling into his chair. His chest heaved raggedly up and down to match the raspy gasps of air. He met Kelvin's cold, expressionless face and would have begged to know why if he had the strength to do it. However, the junior answered the question without having to hear it. "Sorry sir. But I can't let you do that."

He pressed the pistol against the captain's head, pressing a wet, red ring into the middle of Hamill's forehead. Kelvin shook his head sadly and readied his trigger finger. "You'll see. I'm doing the right thing." And those were the last words the captain heard before the second silenced gunshot that ended it all.

The lieutenant took in the moment, letting the jitters of his hand fade away and wiping the blood of his gun off onto Hamill's suit. He spun the captain's chair to the closed window and picked up the Chaos Emerald's container. He readied himself for the next part of spur-of-the-moment plan and fired two shots into the room's window. He rushed for the door and threw it open, shouting up and down the hallway. "Captain Hamill has been murdered! It's one of Eggman's robots! They're after the emerald! Help!"

**A/N:** Brownie points to anyone who can tell us what that song is originally from.

**Sword:** Then you can be a nerd like me and Author.

**Pen:** I thought you two were already nerds. You write video game fanfics for crying out loud!

Anyway, comments?

**Sword:** Praise?

**Pen:** Critiques?

Then let us know. We'll have the epilouge up as soon as possible. Also, I would like to thank all my reviewers who have both pointed out ways to improve the story and who have enjoyed it. You guys make it all worthwhile. Thank you again.


	18. Epilogue: Rise Again

**A/N:** Just so everyone knows, there will be a sequel.

**Sword:** And it'll end this trilogy, story-arcish sort of thing. Yay!

**Pen:** Boo!

**Sword:** En garde!

Also, we would like to thank everyone once again. So thank you and enjoy.

**Epilogue- Rise Again**

"Stand up straighter."

The female fox, who had been leaning against her spear, yawned and stretched her back. The grey, metal suit of armor she wore made it difficult to move and left her with some unpopped cramps. "I would if they didn't make these things so heavy," she replied.

Her partner, a male raccoon dressed in similar fashion, sighed and hefted his shield up higher. The purple emblem on the front of it was the emblazoned symbol of Blaze's household and was also painted onto the two guards' chest plates as well.

"Just do it," he ordered, glancing up and down the spacious hallway that they stood in. White marble decorated the interior with large, paned windows separated by bleached columns on either side. The sunlight lit the corridor, leaving the small, three-pronged chandeliers attached to the walls to hang uselessly until nightfall. The only door to be seen was the large double door they stood in front of. "You never know when one of the aristocrats will come through. Or perhaps the Princess herself."

"Speaking of which, did you hear-"

"I really don't care for any of your gossip," the raccoon snapped, once again looking around to make sure the corridor was clear.

"Oh c'mon," his partner pushed. She spun her spear around like a baton, much to the male's chagrin. Before he could berate for treating a dangerous weapon as a mere toy, she continued. "It's to do with the Princess' love life."

"Oh boy, what now?" he asked sarcastically. "Is she dating some king from another country this time? Or perhaps a celebrity?"

"Even better," she answered. "I hear her and her bodyguard, Silver, are getting awfully close."

"Hah!" he snorted. "Silver? Captain of the guards Silver? The same Silver who gets nervous around her and whose only concern is protecting her? Don't make me laugh."

The fox stuck out her tongue at him and considered whacking him with her spear. Unbeknownst to them, up on the ceiling, perched in the corner where the top of a column met the wall, was a small insect. It's wings fluttered briefly as it watched the two argue and when the girl had turned to her mocking friend, it quickly crawled along the marble, not daring to attract any attention with flying. Instead, it opted to move along with a faint _click_, _clack_ of it's six, spindly black legs and raced to the bottom of the guarded door.

"Hey, why not?" the girl questioned, moving closer to the other. It was just enough that the insect took it's chance. It dashed inside, wiggling it's body underneath the door as she continued. "He's kind and sweet and cute!"

"Just like you said that new yellow guy was?" he asked.

"Oh yeah. I'd like to get them together for a th-" but the rest of her sentence was muffled as the bug moved further away from the door and into the room it had intruded upon. It was furnished much like what the hallway was. Pure white marble surrounding a glassy floor. Except there were no windows so no prying eyes could peek inside the mysterious chamber.

It actually only contained shelves and filing cabinets. High and low, they were everywhere and were stuffed with papers and folders to the bursting point. But once every month or so, they were checked and neatly arranged by a caretaker, leaving the room with an organized, but messy and unused, sense at the same time.

The insect did not dwell on any of this. It continued it's mission, scanning the shelves and cabinets. After several minutes of searching, it finally found what it had come for. It stopped in front of the shelves labeled with a black T and flew up to their jutting ledge, which was just barely big enough for it to perch itself on. Using it's legs, it pulled aside papers and folders, searching the contents of each one on the row. When it reached the middle, it flapped it's wings in excitement, having found the right one.

It stood up on it's hind legs and bit the manila folder that it wanted with it's pincers, pulling it out slowly. It misjudged how lodged between it's compatriots the folder was and yanked too hard, spilling the contents onto the floor. The bug, terrified that someone may have heard, stayed perfectly still on the ledge while the documents scattered around the floor, splaying themselves out for all the world to see. When no sign of movement or discovery occurred from anywhere in the room or outside of it, the insect hopped down to the floor below.

It quickly scanned the different papers until it found the one it wanted. Standing before it, it deployed a small, miniature camera from it's back and snapped several photos of it. After making sure it had what it came for, and that there was no other relevant material, it headed for the door, deciding that it would be better to escape with it's prize rather than clean up it's mess and risk being caught.

Outside, the two guards were in a heated argument over their pointless discussion. The bug was able to easily sneak past the two, especially when the girl threw down her spear and began kissing the boy, claiming that the endless bickering was "turning her on". Perplexed by this sudden gesture, the insect paused in it's escape for only a second to watch before continuing on.

* * *

By nightfall, the tiny critter had reached it's home and master. In the belly of a derelict, wrecked ship from a war long forgotten and deep in a high crevice of a lonely mountain, was where it flew. Passing through the blasted holes and ancient scorched walls of the ship, it made it's way to the very heart, where life still barely beat in the large contraption in the form of a solitary, old man. He hovered over a piece of machinery, staring bleary-eyed at it through the flickering kerosene lamp, which turned the ship from a decaying waste into a cozy, impromptu home. The man's back was turned away from the small insect until it landed next to the machine piece the man was working on.

"Did you get the pictures?" he questioned. The bug responded by deploying it's camera once more and showing holographic images of the photos it had taken. "Excellent. Were you spotted?" The insect nodded. "Incompetent fool!" the man raised his gloved fist, but halted before bringing it down onto his minion. "Never mind. It will not matter soon."

The man grabbed the handle of his lamp and flashed it's light on a taller machine behind him. It was large enough to hold two people and contained various wires, buttons, and was held together by scarcely sufficient field repairs. It loomed over the entire room, like an omnipresent being. And sitting at the top of it was a red jewel.

"With the plans from the princess' little fox friend, we'll finally be able to make this transporter work without the emerald being forced to travel with the occupant as well," the old man murmured. With a wicked smile, he let his mind began to envision his future ambitions that he planned to make a reality very soon. "And then everyone will bow before me! The great and powerful Nega!" he thundered.


End file.
